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Fight for the Standard. 



SKETCHES 



OP 



IRISH SOLDIERS 



IN 



EVERY LAND. 



BY 



COLONEL JAMES E. McGEE. 

* i 

— . — . ' 

NEW VORK: J 
J. A. McGEE, PUBLISHEK, 

7 Bakcj.ay St. 
1873. 



^ 



^K^^^ 



vv^ 




7k 



Entered, according to act of Congress, in the office of the Librarian of 
Congress, at "Washington, D. C, by James E. McGee, A. D. 1873. 



THE LIBRAF.Yij 

OF CONGRESS II 



WASHINGTOK 



Lange, Little & Hii.lman, 
pri.nteks, 

Stereotyped at the New York Catholic ,|,g ^o lu Woostkr Stekbt, n, y. 
Protectory, West Chester, N. Y. 



^/^ 



TO THE MEMORY 



OP 



THE FEARLESS IRISHMEN 

WHO FOUGHT AND FELL, DURING THE LATE 

WAR, 

IN DEFENCE OF 

THE LIBERTY AND INTEGRITY 

OE THEIR 



ADOPTED COUNTRY, 



THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS FONDLY AND 



PROUDLY DEDICATED. 



PREFACE. 



In presenting to the public the following sketches, 
I am fully aware that I have left out many names of 
distinguished Irishmen, and omitted or merely glanced 
at several incidents, historical and biographical, which, 
if fully related, would redound to the national credit 
of my chivalrous countrymen in every part of the 
world. These omissions have not been intentional, 
but necessary. 

Within the limits assigned to this book, it was 
impossible to find place for even the mention of the 
names of the myriad of heroic Irish soldiers who, 
during the seventeenth century, battled for religious 
freedom and independence at hoHie, or who, in the 
eighteenth, filled the continent of Europe, the Indies, 
east and west, and our own colonies, with the fame of 
their bravery and daring. The incidents connected 
with their brilliant and varied careers, are also so 
numerous, and so amplified by contemporary writers, that 



VI PREFACE. 

it would require an ordinary lifetime to arrange them 
with any thing like system, and to record them with 
a proper degree of clearness and fidelity. 

When we consider that, from the surrender of 
Limerick till the era of the French Revolution, three- 
quarters of a million of adults of Irish birth served in 
the armies and navies of Europe alone; that they 
were to be found fighting under every flag on the 
continent, according as their inclination or family ties 
led them to the choice of a home ; that they were, 
even under the same government, divided into various 
brigades, regiments, parts of regiments, and inde- 
pendent commands; that their officers, forced from 
their native soil by persecuting and prescriptive laws, 
were men whose fortunes lay in their swords, and whose 
advancement depended neither on court favor nor 
social influence, but on their individual capacity and 
conduct in actual warfare, — we can form some estimate 
of what a mass of facts, dates, episodes, and anecdotes, 
an author would have to collate and examine, who 
aimed at publishing all the gallant deeds performed 
by Irishmen even for two or three generations. 

My object was less ambitious ; for I desired only to 
portray a few of these noble actions, — to cull, as it were, 
some flowers from the immortal garlands with which 
modern history has en wreathed the brow of Irish 



PREFACE. Vii 

valor, and, by presenting tliem in a well-assorted bou- 
quet, to show to the world, in miniature form, what 
grateful tributes have been offered to the exiled and 
long-suffering children of the land in which I had the 
honor of being born. 

While selecting prominent characters, and iucident- 
ally touching on the relation of important battles, I 
have endeavored also to presei've as much as possible 
a chronological sequence, so that those who have 
neither leisure nor inclination to study the history of 
the last three centuries, as it elucidates the condition 
and afflictions of Ireland, may incidentally gain some 
notion of the motives, aims, and innate strength of her 
people, while amusing themselves with the moving 
accounts of practical warfare. 

It is almost unnecessaiy to say that the present 
collection of evidences of Irish prowess and skill on 
many a well-fought field, is not intended to demon- 
strate them in the past or present to the general public j 
for, whatever other quality may be refused to that 
people, courage has never been denied them. England 
herself, who, like the ancient Romans, is not satisfied 
with subduing a weaker nation, but always seeks to 
justify her wrong by destroying in the minds of others 
the character of its . people, cannot deny them the 
attribute of courage. But she does all in her power, 



Vlll PREFACE. 

all that her ingenuity can snggest, and lier malice 
propagate, to lessen its grand moral effect. Were we 
to believe her officialsj her scribes and caricatmists, 
the Irish, even at their best, are good only at a "shindy," 
a wild half-intoxicated foray, or a reckless, headlong 
charge. That, in fact, our courage is that of the wild 
animal which shuts its eyes and rushes on the foe, not 
the sterling bravery that can patiently endure suffering 
and fatigue, coolly advance and steadily retire, equally 
patient and formidable in defeat or victory j and this 
in despite of the repeated proofs afforded by her own 
military annals ; that, in fact, we are fit only to be led^ 
and not to be leaders. 

Now nothing can be more fallacious or unjust than 
this estimate of Irish military character, sought to be 
impressed upon the belief of other nations by our 
enemy. Keeping in view the force of class influence 
and political preference, which have in all countries 
exercised such a potent influence in the promotion of 
army officers, as well as the effect of national pre- 
judices and the advantages which a knowledge of the 
vernacular justly affords the native-born, we ai'e 
surprised to find how numerous were the general 
officers of Irish birth, not to speak of those of Irish 
extraction, whose names are to be found on the muster- 
rolls of every army in Europe, within the space of one 



PREFACE. IX 

hundred and fifty years. From Lacy in Russia, to 
Field-Marshal Nugent in Austria, who but recently 
died, Irish officers, relying solely on their intrinsic 
merits, their bravery, fidelity, and genius, have been 
amonfif the most trusted and distinsfuished commanders 
in every country in Europe, from the time that all 
hope of rescuing their country from the thraldom of 
England by the strong arm had been abandoned by 
her wisest and bravest sons. 

It is true that in later times the direction of the tide 
of Irish emigration, as well as the character of the 
emigrants, has been changed. America, not Europe, 
is now opening her hospitable bosom to receive and 
welcome the oppressed j not as dashing, hot-blooded, 
and educated soldiers to fight her battles, but as humble, 
loyal, yet still stalwart citizens, to till her inexhaust- 
ible fields and level her interminable forests. But it is 
well that our adopted country should know — if the 
events of tkc late civil war have not convinced her — 
that the pluck and hardihood that were displayed so 
prominently on the battle-fields of France and Spain, 
Italy and Gennany, by the Irishmen of past genera- 
tions, are as strong and vigorous in their descendants of 
to-day, and as ready to be displayed in the cause of the 
country that gives them what they are yet denied at 
home, — civil and religious freedom. 



X PREFACE. 

I may be allowed to add that, in compiling these 
sketches, I have aimed more at accuracy of description 
than at originality, and that I have been indebted to 
the works of several authors, to whom I have en- 
deavored to give full credit in the text or notes, and, 
amongst others, to John Cornelius O^Callaghan, whose 
History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France 
is a work of rare industry and research, and an in- 
exhaustible mine of information on that particular 
subject. 

J. E. M. 

New York, May, 1873. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGK 

Hugh O'Neill. — Battle of the Yellow Ford . . 1 
Owen Roe O'Neill. — Battle of Benburb . . 13 
A Fighting Bishop. — The Confederation of Kil- 
kenny ........ 19 

Patrick Sarsfield. — Defence of Limerick . . 57 
Sergeant Costume. — The Siege of Athlone . . 76 
Undress Uniform. — The Surprise of Cremona . 81 
Captain James Cantillon. — Battle of Malplaquet 93 
Field Marshal Count Peter Lacy. — His Cam- 
paigns as Commander of the Russian forces . 96 
Lieutenant-General Daniel O'Mahont. — The 

Wars of the Spanish Succession . . .124 

Chevalier Wogan. — Stealing a Princess . .138 
An Old-fashioned Duel. — Swords for Four ; 

Coffee for Two 148 



Lord Clare. — Battle of Fontenoy 
Captain Carew. — Implicit Obedience 
Major-General Richard Montgomery 
vasion of Canada 



. 152 

. 160 
— The In- 

. 162 



Xll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

John Sullivan. — How he seized an opportunity 

and some cannon . . . . . .173 

Mad Anthony Wayne. — Capture of Stony Point . 176 
General John Stark. — Battle of Bennington . 180 
General Edward Hand. — How a Doctor killed 

his enemies instead of his patients . , .185 
Colonel Fitzgerald. — Battle of Princeton, N. J. 189 
Commodore John Barry. — Organization of the 

American Navy 193 

The Men op '98. — The "Wexford Insurrection . 203 
General Count O'Connell. — Last days of the 

Irish Brigade in France 252 

Count O'Shea. — Sweet Kevenge . . . . 258 
Captain O'Reilly. — A Brigade Officer of the Old 

School 261 

Daniel O'Connell. — His duel with D'Esterre . 266 
Adventures by Flood and Field. — A Sailor on 

Shore . 289 

The 88th Rangers. — " Connaught Robbers " . 299 
General Thomas W. Sweeny. — Battles of Cerro 

Gordo and Shiloh 303 

General Michael Corcoran. — The 69th at Bull 

Run . 311 

Who Won the " British " Victories. — Battles 

by Land and Sea 326 



IRISH SOLDIERS. 



HUGH O'NEILL. 

BATTLE OF THE YELLOW FORD. 

Hugh, or, as he is more properly called in 
the Gaelic vernacular, Aodha O'Neill, was of 
a race the most distinguished in the annals of 
any country for hereditary military prowess 
and deeds of valor. For at least fifteen 
hundred years he could trace back his an- 
cestors in an unbroken line, every one of 
whom was a soldier and a prince. Like his 
progenitors, as far as we have a description 
of their perso7ineI, he was tall, muscular, and 
handsome, well skilled in the art of warfare, 
as then known, and of undaunted courage. 
To these noble qualities he, liowever, un- 



Z IRISH SOLDIERS. 

like most of tliem, added that of profound 
dissimulation, and a conscience not over 
scrupulous as to means when an end was to 
be gained. In early life he had served as 
an ensign in the French army, and after- 
wards in a higher grade in that of England. 
As Earl of Tyrone, an English title confer- 
red on and accepted by one of his immediate 
predecessors, he was much at Elizabeth's 
court, and even, it is said, a favorite of that 
fickle and infamous woman ; and it ^^ ris 
in the companionship of such men as Cecil 
and Monteagle that he learned those arts of 
trickery and deception which he afterwards 
practised against them with such marked 
effect. The difference between them and 
him was, that they used their treachery to 
persecute and harass their countrymen 
and even to betray their country, while he 
found it the most effective weapon he 
could use against the deceitful enemies of 
his race and nation. 

When he retired from the English ser- 
vice he went to Ulster and took up his resid- 
ence at the ancestral mansion, where he spent 



HUGH o'nEILL. 3 

a long time secretly preparing for a war on 
the palesmen. His an^angements were on 
a very extensive scale, his plans exhibited 
great comprehensiveness, and his design 
evidently was to drive the English out of 
Ireland and to become king of the whole 
country. This result, so much to have been 
desired, at one period of his subsequent 
career, seemed to friends and foes alike to 
be not only possible, but very probable 
indeed. 

In 1595, O'Neill having his scheme com- 
pleted, as far as he could with his limited 
means, took occasion to provoke a quarrel 
with the English authorities in Ireland, by 
ignominiously expelling a sheriff whom 
they had sent into his country. He was 
accused of this crime by his brother-in-law. 
Sir Henry Bagnal, who entertained for him 
the most implacable hatred ; and for his wide 
domain, in case of confiscation, a propor- 
tionate affection. Tyrone contented himself 
with a protestation of innocence, but wisely 
withdrew to his own fastnesses and to the 
protection of his castles. Foiled in their 



4 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

attempt on his person, Sir John Norris, a 
brave and experienced commander, was 
sent against him with a considerable body 
of troops to bring him to terms, but ^' the 0' 
Neill," the title he now reassumed, though 
with fewer numbers and Avithout any re- 
gular equipments or cannon, so hung on 
his flanks and annoyed his foraging parties, 
that the English general was forced to 
abandon, for that season at least, ihe 
main enterprise, and retreat on Newry. 
" Norris," says O'Connor, "next proceeded 
to raise the siege of Monaghan invested by 
the insurgents. A rivulet separated the 
armies, each of which seemed to dread the 
event of a battle. A sharjD encounter en- 
sued in which Norris had three horses kill- 
ed under him, and he and his brother were 
forced by their wounds to retire from the 
heat of the conflict. Segrave, an English 
officer, at the head of a body of cavalry 
made a furious assault on O'Neill's quarters ; 
Tyrone encountered him in single combat. 
Then' lances being shivered on each other's 
cuirass, the vigorous arm of O'Neill wielding 



HUGH o'nEILL. 



a ponderous sword, clove down liis adver- 
sary. Norris sounded a retreat, and Mon- 
aghan surrendered to the victorious army." 

This success was but the prehide to a 
much greater victory, the most glorious and 
complete that has ever been won by 
Irishmen on their own soil, since that of 
Clontarf, in the early part of the eleventh 
century. This battle is known to the 
people of the neighborhood to this day 
as that of Beal-an-atlia-biddhe (the Yellow 
Ford), on the river Black water, and took 
place on the 10th of August, 1595. 

The night previous Sir Henry Bagnal 
occupied Ai'magh with his army, well 
equipped, officered, supplied with artillery, 
ammunition, and stores, and anticipating an 
easy conquest. O'Neill on his side, antici- 
pating, an attack, took up a strong position 
near the Ford, and to compensate for his 
deficiency in numbers and ordnance, threw 
up breastworks, partially to protect his 
front and flanks, with pits in advance con- 
taining sharp-pointed stakes, covered slightly 
with grass and herbs, after the manner of 



6 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Bruce at Bannockbum. At daylight on 
that eventful day, the English army marched 
out of Armagh to attack the Irish beliind 
their works. The head of the column was 
led by Bagnal in person, who, though an 
arrant coward, felt such undying enmity 
towards T^rrone and was so confident of 
an easy victory, that he forgot all prudence 
and even his natural timidity. His centre 
was commanded by Crosby and Wingfield, 
two excellent officers, and his rear division 
by Cuin and Billing. Brooke, Montacute, 
and Fleming's cavalry protected his flanks. 
The first opposition which Bagnal met was 
from an enfilading fire of musketry from 
some Irish troops stationed in a piece of 
dense pine forest which lined either side of 
the road, some distance in advance of the 
main body. Those, however, after con- 
siderable loss to the enemy, were driven out 
of the woods and pressed back on the en- 
trenchments, and the English without further 
interruption debouched into the open plain, 
and formed their order of battle within 
sight of their opponents. 



HUGH o'nEILL. 



The conflict now commenced in earnest. 
Bagnal's artillery being within short range, 
battered the slight earthworks of Tyrone 
into a shapeless mass ; and his first division 
of infantry, supported by some light cavalry, 
made a desperate onslaught on the brave 
defenders. The cavalry, however, too late 
discovered the pitfalls that had been dug 
for them, and man and horse sunk down in 
them, irretrievably lost ; those who were not 
disabled by the Irish musketeers being 
crushed to death by their own horses. The 
infantry, however, under cover of the in- 
cessant artillery fire advanced to the works, 
and even succeeded, at a great sacrifice of 
life, in capturing a portion of them. 
O'Neill, who never missed an opportunity 
to strike a deadly blow, saw that his time 
was now come ; so, bringing up the main 
body of his forces, he ordered a general 
charge along the line, ^' horse, foot, and 
dragoons," and with one wild cheer the 
entire army precipitated itself on the foe. 
Only those who have seen an Irish charge 
can appreciate the effect of such a move- 



8 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

ment. The shock was irresistible. The 
infantry were scattered like chaff before a 
whirlwind, and the horsemen went down 
before the heavy swords and sharp pikes 
of the Celts, like grass before the scythe. 
The resistance at first was stubborn, such 
as might have been expected fi'om veterans 
who had long seen service in the Low 
Countries as well as in Ireland ; but having 
lost their best officers, and fearing to be 
utterly annihilated, they at length broke and 
fled in disma}^, pursued to the very gates of 
Armagh by the victorious Irish. 

O'Neill of course headed this charge, and, 
sword in hand, to use the classic lanof-uaofe 
of this day, "went for" his ill-conditioned 
brother-in-law, who, had they met, would 
undoubtedly have shared the fate of Colonel 
Segrave, but he had already paid the 
penalty of his temerity; for, some time 
previously, upon raising his visor to inhale 
the fresh air, he was shot in the face by an 
unknown marksman, and fell lifeless from 
his saddle. Twenty-two superior officers, 
not counting lieutenants and ensigns, and 



HUGH o'nEILL. 9 

twenty-five liundred men were killed in the 
battle and pursuit on the side of the enemy, 
while the Irish only lost two hundred, and 
three times that amount wounded. All the 
cannon, stores, horses, and standards of the 
English fell into the hands of the victors, 
besides a large supply of clothing and 
provisions, of which they stood in great 
need. 

The effect of this grand success was 
electrical throughout Ireland. In Connaught, 
every man wdio could bear arms hastened 
to join O'Neill, and the Irish of the south 
prepared to follow tlieir example. The 
English '' authorities" in Dublin began to 
realize the doubtful nature of their tenure of 
office ; and, had the promised supplies from 
Spain arrived in time, there can be no doubt 
that English power in Ireland would have 
been for ever destroyed. 

***** 

"This man, Bagnal, hated Tyrone with 
implacable animosity ; and, indeed, the earl 
reciprocated — nay, branded him in public 



10 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

and private as a coward who shrank from 
the ordeal of single combat." 

^'Single combat!" interrupted Father 
Purcell, '' surely Tyrone was not justified in 
accepting or proposing such ! " 

^' Have you not read," replied the provin- 
cial, ^' how Wenceslaus, the canonized duke 
of Bohemia, offered to enter the lists and 
fight his mortal enemy, Eadislaus 1 " 

"Yes," answered Purcell ; "but the legend 
tells how an angel armed Wenceslaus in 
celestial panoply, and forbade his adversary 
to unsheathe the sword. Be that as it may," 
continued the provincial, "Bagnal refused to 
encounter Tyrone, when the latter proposed 
to meet him — nay, shrank away like a 
craven, although the earl offered to allow 
the dastard to come armed from head to 
foot against him in hose and jerkin, to en- 
courage him the rather to accept the chal- 
lenge. Bagnal -was valiant enough with 
the pen, when inditing charges of covert 
treason against Tyrone ; a perfect master of 
fence, when nothing but the pen was needed 
to deal an assassin thrust ; but when there 



HUGH O^NEILL. 11 

was a question of cold, glittering steel, liis 
heart melted within him like wax. In fact, 
like the pedant King James, who now reigns, 
he trembled at sight of a drawn sword." 
{Dialogue between two Franeiscans in the city 
of Louvain, August 16th, 1617, according to 
the version of Rev. C. P. Meehan, M. R. I. A., 
in his ''' Bise and Fall of the Franciscan 
Monasteries^ etc^^ Dublin, 1869.) 



12 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



OWEN ROE O'NEILL. 

BATTLE OF BENBURB. 

Owen Eoe McArt O'Neill was a 
worthy scion of the royal Ulster house of 
that name, and one of the bravest and most 
accomplished captains, not only of the 
Ldsh race, but of his period, in Europe ; so 
much so, that Napoleon is said to have 
expressed his opinion that; if his life had 
been spared, he would have been more than a 
match for the infamous, but warlike Crom- 
well. In A. D. 1641, the Irish, goaded into 
insurrection by cruelty and persecution, rose 
in arms, and, in the following year, Owen 
Roe, then serving with great distinction in 
the Spanish army, was invited to Ireland to 
take command of the northern forces. In 
June, 1642, he sailed homeward from Dun- 
kirk, and in a few days, landed at Donegal. 
The enemy in Ulster at the time consisted of 



^ OWEN ROE o'nEILL. 13 

about thirteen thousand troops, mostly 
Scotchmen, commanded by Major-General 
Robert Monro, while the forces, which the 
patriots could place at the disposal of their 
new general, did not, at most, number over 
fifteen hundred. O'Neill's strategy, there- 
fore, was to avoid a general engagement, 
and by a series of brilliant skirmishes to give 
confidence and steadiness to his fresh levies. 
In this he succeeded admirably, and at the 
end of four years he felt himself strong 
enough to cope with his adversary. 

On Friday, the 5th of June, 1646, the 
collision of the opposing forces took place 
near the church of Benburb, county of 
Tyrone, in the angle formed by the rivers 
Blackwater and Oonagli. The Irish troops 
numbered five thousand infantry and five 
hundred cavalry, while Monro's, which have 
been variously estimated at from three thou- 
sand four hundred to eight thousand five 
hundred, actually consisted of some seven 
thousand, of whom eight hundred were 
mounted, with seven pieces of cannon. Wliat 
Owen Eoe, however, lacked in numbers, he 



14 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

made up in quality, if we can judge from 
the following names of his subordinates, who 
constituted the flower of the northern and 
western chivalry of that day. 

They were Sir Phelim O'Neill and his 
brother Thurlough ; Con, Cormac, Hugh and 
Brian O'Neill ; and the following chieftains 
with their clans : Bernard MacMahon the son 
of Hugh, Chief of Monaghan, and Baron of 
Dartry; Colonel MacMahon, Colonel Pa- 
trick MacNeney, Colonel Richard O'Ferrall 
of Longford, Roger Maguire of Fermanagh, 
Colonel Philip O'Reilly of Ballynacargy 
Castle in the county of Cavan, and Maolmora 
O'Kelly (Miles the Slasher). The O'Reillys 
brought two hundred chosen men of their 
own name, and of the MacBradys, M'Cabes, 
MacGowans, Fitzpatricks, and Fitzsimons 
from Cavan. Some fighting men were also 
brought by MacGauran of Templeport and 
MacTeirnan of Croghan ; some Connaught 
forces came with the O'Roui'kes, McDer- 
motts, O'Connors, O'Kelly s, and the O'Don- 
nells and O'Dougherties of Donegal ; Manus 
O'Kane of Derry ; Sir Constantino Magennis 



OWEN ROE o'nEILL. 15 

of Down, the O'Hanlons of Armagh, and the 
O'Hagans of Tyrone.^ 

In the spring of 1646, O'Neill marched 
into the county of Armagh, and was follow- 
ed by Monro, who hoped by a surprise to 
catch him in the city of that name. At the 
same time he ordered his brother. Colonel 
George Mom-o, from Coleraine by the west 
side of Lough Neagh with three troops of 
horse, to join him at Glass Lough in the 
County of Monaghan. The Irish general 
hearing this, resolved to prevent the junc- 
tion, and evacuating Armagh, marched on a 
place called Bally Kilgavan, where, hav- 
ing taken up a position, he dispatched some 
cavalry, under Colonels McMahon and 
MacNeney, to check George Monro's ad- 
vance, and drive him back on Dungannon : 
a work which was handsomely accomplished. 

Meanwhile Monro, with the main body 
of liis army, marched through the city of 
Armagh and up the right bank of the river 
Blackwater ; and O'Neill, according to pre- 
vious intention, fell back on the Blackwater, 

* Davis. 



16 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

where lie resolved to give battle. His 
position was well chosen, his right flank 
resting on a wet bog, and his left protected 
by the two rivers, while in his front the 
ground was covered with hillocks and 
clumps of wood as covers for skirmishers. 
Monro crossed the Blackwater at Kinaird 
(Caledon), and advanced down the left bank 
to the attack. These manoeuvres occupied 
nearly the entire day, so that it was after 
four o'clock in the afternoon before the 
advance of the enemy came in contact 
with the Irish outposts. At first, the advan- 
tage seemed to be on the side of the Anglo- 
Scotch troops. O'Farrell's cavalry were driv- 
en in ; the skirmishers, after doing consider- 
able damage, were obliged to retreat ; the 
Scotch musketeers for a time caused great 
havoc on the left, and Monro's artillery 
played with effect on the centre. It was at 
this crisis that O'Neill's generalship and 
continental training became conspicuous. 
Forming two lines of infantry into a column 
of attack, with the cavalry in the interstice, 
he gave the order for a general charge, and 



OWEN ROE o'nEILL. 17 

liis men with a wild cheer rushed up the 
hill upon the foe, and without firing a shot 
(a favorite movement it seems with our 
countrymen), dashed in on the enemy's 
infantry and cavalry indiscriminately. This 
charge could not be withstood, and though 
stubbornly met, the result was not long 
doubtful. While the infantry was thus 
engaged, the Irish cavalry, deploying to the 
right and left, wheeled into line on Monro's 
flanks, charged simultaneously on the dis- 
organized masses, and completed the vic- 
tory. The havoc was immense for the 
numbers engaged, and shows what training 
existed on one side, and desperation on 
the other. No less than three tliousand four 
hundred and twenty three of the enemy fell, 
on the field ; and Lord Montgomery, with 
twenty-one officers and one hundred and 
fifty men, were taken prisoners. Owen Roe 
lost in all seventy killed, including Colonels 
Manus O'Kane, MacNeill, and Garve O'Don- 
nell, and two hundred wounded, including 
several officers. All the enemy's artillery, 
small arms, twenty stand of colors, ammuni- 

2 



18 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

tion, provisions and fifteen hundred draught- 
horses became the spoils of the victors. 
General rejoicing prevailed through Ireland 
on the receipt of the news of this splendid 
victory ; and Owen Eoe O'Neill's name was 
on every tongue, and his praise became, and 
is to this day, the theme of many a song 
and tale. 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 19 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 

THE CONFEDERATION OF KILKENNY. 

However modern notions of propriety 
may be shocked at the idea of a CathoHc pre- 
late exchanging the crozier for the sword, it 
cannot be denied that in the early Christian 
ages many pious and illustrious ecclesiastics 
took up arms to defend the Church and to 
crush its infidel and idolatrous enemies. 
Bishop McMahon, of whose career we 
abridge the following sketch from a recent 
work by the Rev. C. P. Meehan,* inherited 
the fiery zeal of those holy prelates, and 
fouffht for a cause as sacred as that which 
called Italy to arms against the Goths, or 
poured upon the plains and hills of Pales- 
tine the flower of European chivalry. We 
have preferred to give as near as possible 

* The Franciscan Monasteries and the IHsh Hierarchy of tht 
nth century. By the Rev. C. P. Meehan. Dublin, 1869. 



20 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

Father Meehan's own words, as from liis 
long study of the subjects treated in his 
valuable little book, and- his intense, though 
judicious patriotism, he is more fitted than 
any man living, to describe the plans and 
actions of such a man as the valiant Bishop 
of Clogher, and to draw correct deductions 
therefrom. 

Heber, or Emeric, son of Turlough Mac- 
Mahon and Eva O'Neill, was born in Mon- 
aghan, in 1600. Heber's father had fought 
on the side of the northern chieftains, from 
the beginning of the war Avhich the latter 
waged against Queen Elizabeth ; and on 
every field, from Clontibret to the great 
victory of the Blackwater, he acted the part 
of a brave soldier, proving himself on all 
occasions a worthy representative of an 
ancient race, always renowned for valorous 
achievements. The child Heber was only 
seven years old when his kinsman, James 
Colla MacMahon, was obliged to join the 
Earls in their flight from Lough S willy; 
and, in the course of a few years afterwards, 
his father was reduced to comparative pov- 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 21 

erty by tlie bill of attainder, which pro- 
scribed the fugitives and their adherents, and 
confiscated the best part of Ulster to the 
crown. Obliged to seek shelter, with the 
survivors of O'Neill's and O'Donnell's clans- 
men, in the then almost inaccessible wilds of 
Donegal, Turlough, with his wife Eva and 
their only child, fixed his residence in the 
vicinity of Killybegs, and there lived as 
best they could, hoping that he would, 
sooner or later, be restored to some parcel 
of those grand domains which had been so 
cruelly and unjustly wrested from him and 
his. News, however, reached Ireland to- 
wards the close of 1608, that James 
MacMahon and his companion in misfor- 
tune, Lord Maguire, had died immediately 
after their arrival at Genoa ; and the Exe^ 
cutive, acting on this welcome intelligence, 
confirmed the grant of Turlough's patrimony 
to the new occupier, and thiis annulled all 
the claims of the rightful owner. At that 
period, Turlough was too old to take service 
in the Spanish armies ; and as he was 
suffering from wounds received on the 



22 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

disastrous day of Kinsale, he resolved to 
remain at home, and devote the remainder 
of his days to the initiating young Ileber, 
his sole hope, in the rudiments of the 
military profession till the lad would be fit 
to sail for Flanders, and there enlist into 
the Irish regiment, which was then com- 
manded by the eldest son of the banished 
Earl of Tyrone. Heber, indeed, did inherit 
the chivalrous instincts of his father; but 
his mother, it would appear, had no 
ambition to see him trailing halberd or 
lance ; and she consequently resolved that 
his hopes and aspirations should take an 
opposite direction, and yearn for the still 
higher honor of serving in the weakened 
ranks of the Church, then truly militant^ in 
Ireland. Heber seconded his mother's 
wishes, and laid down sword and target for 
book and pen ; and that nothing might be 
wanting to forward his education, she 
called into her humble homestead a Fran- 
ciscan friar of Donegal, who, in return for 
the bread and shelter afforded him, taught 
the boy Latin, Greek, and Spanish, and 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 23 

made him thoroughly familiar with the 
history of his unfortunate country. To- 
wards the close of 1617, Heber set out for 
Douay, and entered the Irish college, 
which Cussack, a priest of Meath, had en- 
dowed in that old Flemish town. Having 
completed his philosophical course there, 
he removed to Louvain, in order to avail 
himself of the lectures of the learned 
Franciscan, MacCaghwell, who was then 
esteemed one of the most profound theo- 
logians of his time. At length, having 
gone through the prescribed cycle of 
studies, and attained his twenty-fifth year, 
Heber was ordained priest in the chapel of 
the Irish Franciscan convent at Louvain ; 
John Colgan, Donatus Mooney, Father* 
O'Cleary, and other celebrities assisting on 
the occasion. 

At the time of his ordination, Louvain, 
and, indeed, every other garrison town in 
Flanders, swarmed with Irish troops, com- 
manded by Owen Roe O'Neill, Preston, of 
the house of Gormanston, O'Cahan, and 
others, who were destined to take part in the 



24 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

eventful vicissitudes of tlieir native land at 
a future period. Had MacMalion wished 
to remain among- liis exiled countrymen, lie 
could easily liave found advancement at 
tlie hands of tlie archdukes, Albert and 
Isabella, then the steadiest friends of the 
Irish Catholics ; but, knowing that his 
services were required in the land of his 
birth, he hastened home, and devoted him- 
self with heroic zeal to the duties of his 
calling. On his arrival in his native 
diocese, he found the Catholics deprived not 
only of their lands, but of their churches, 
and obliged to assist at the divine sacrifice 
wherever it could be celebrated, without 
attracting tlie notice of the " Undertakers," 
in the recesses of the mountains, and oftener 
still on the hillsides which commanded a 
view of the surrounding districts, and en- 
abled them to take precaution against being 
sui-prised or interrupted. The people re- 
spected MacMahon not only as a priest, but 
as one of the representatives of the ancient 
nobility of Ulster who liad suffered so 
much for religion and country; and we 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 25 

may easily imagine with what weight his 
words fell on their hearts, when he exhorted 
them to persevere in the same profession, 
and beseech God to take compassion on 
their endurance. Cautiously avoiding all 
overt acts that could provoke the intolerance 
of Lord Falkland, and the deputies who 
succeeded him, he toiled as a simple j)riest 
twenty years in the diocese of Clogher; 
and so efficiently,, that O'Reilly, vicar- 
apostolic of Kilmore, and subsequently 
archbishop of Armagh, wrote to Rome that 
he deserved the higliest honors to which 
the Holy See could advance him The 
primate, doubtless, regarded him as emi- 
nently qualified to preside over the ancient 
see of Clogher ; in a word, as one whose 
election to that dignity would be hailed 
with delight by the people, who, in the 
midst of their reverses, still maintained 
traditional reverence for the son of the 
Orgiellian chieftains. 

At the commencement of the agitation 
which heralded the insurrection of 1641, 
MacMahon signified to Lord Ormond that 



26 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

the Catholics of the north, unable to bear 
the oppressions of the Scotch and English 
undertakers, would assuredly rise in arms, 
unless the Executive took means to protect 
their lives against the repeated acts of 
aggression to which they were hourly ex- 
posed ; but this timely warning was utterly 
thrown away on Parsons and Borlase, 
whose aim was to goad the ^'papists" to 
rebellion, in order that they might share 
between them the remnant of property 
that was still in the hands of the latter. At 
length, however, endurance reached its 
extremest limit ; the northern Catholics ap- 
pealed to arms ; and among those who were 
involved in the abortive attempt to seize 
Dublin Castle and the persons of the Lords 
Justices, was Hugh MacMahon, the near 
kinsman of the subject of this memoir. 

At the outbreak of the revolution. Father 
Heber exerted all his power and influence 
to restrain the licentiousness of the multi- 
tudes who flocked to the standard of Sir 
Phelim O'Neill and the other northern 
leaders ; and such were his exertions in be- 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 27 

half of the Protestants, that many of them 
owed their lives and preservation of their 
property to his charitable interference. As 
soon, however, as the '^rising" assmiied the 
character of a general movement , he co- 
operated with Archbishop O'Reilly and the 
other prelates who assembled at Kells, and 
finally at Kilkenny, to direct the people in 
laying the foundations of the confederacy. 
On all these occasions, the prelates and lay 
lords gave attentive ear to his suggestions, 
and regarded him as one whose wisdom 
was only equalled by his well-known cou- 
rage. At length, when the confederacy was 
fully organized, and the prelates had re- 
solved to fill those sees that were vacant, a 
memorial was forwarded to Rome, praying 
his Holiness, Urban VIII, to promote 
MacMahon to the bishopric of Clogher, as 
no other could be found more deserving of 
such advancement, either by ancient descent 
or grand services rendered to the new 
government. The Holy See granted the 
prayer of the petitioners, and MacMahon 
was consecrated at Drogheda, early in 1643, 



28 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

after having held the see of Down and Con- 
nor as hisJiop-elect for two years previously. 
The motives that determined this selec- 
tion were twofold — spiritual and temporal 
— for the Holy See not only appreciated 
the services which MacMahon had rendered 
to religion, but set due value on his 
acloiowledged influence with the people of 
his province, who recognized him as the 
representative of their ancient chieftains, 
and were nowise loath to follow him to the 
field, whenever he might find it imperative 
to lay aside crook and mitre for sword and 
helmet. In fact, he was the fittest man for 
the dignity to which he was elevated, for 
it is likely that no other could have been 
found at the time possessing so many 
attributes of a militant prelate. His first 
essay in that capacity was made a 3^ear 
before he received the bull appointing him 
to the see of Clogher, when he marched at 
the head of a strong detachment of troops, 
to congratulate his early friend, Owen 
O'Neill, on his arrival in Ireland, and 
tender to that brave general the aid of his 



J 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 29 

sword wlienever he mio^ht need it. Strang-e 
as such a proposition may appear to us, it 
could not shock or surprise O'Neill, who, 
doubtless, was aware that many Spanish 
and Italian prelates, and Pope Julius II 
especially, had dared death in the field ; and 
he therefore accepted the chivalrous offer 
with a soldier's thankfulness. 

But what O'Neill desired most at that 
juncture was the removal of his kinsman, 
Sir Phelim, from the command of the Ulster 
forces, and to have at his disposal large 
levies of stalwart youths, who, when dis- 
ciplined after the Spanish fashion, were to 
be officered by those gallant and experi- 
enced men who had seen service with him 
in many a campaign and shared his laurels 
at Arras. It is almost unnecessary to say, 
that Father Heber voted Owen Roe general- 
in-chief of the northern confederates, and 
spared no effort to procure recruits for that 
chieftain's standard, till he had the satisfac- 
tion of seeing him at the head of a large and 
highly disciplined army. Such truly valua- 
ble services were fully recognized at Eome, 



30 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

where Father Wadding, and others not less 
influential, commended them to the notice of 
the Holy See ; and we have glanced at them 
here in order to explain why it was that 
Rinuccini was instructed to make a confi- 
dant of Heber, bishop of Clogher. The 
first meeting of these two personages took 
place in the castle of Kilkenny, immedi- 
ately after the nuncio's arrival in that city, 
and then commenced that friendship and 
continuity of intercourse, which lasted 
through so many years of triumph and 
reverses. Indeed, one of the nuncio's ear- 
liest despatches shows that MacMahon 
realized his ideal of a true and energetic 
bishop ; for when enumerating the many 
difficulties he had to encounter from the 
opposition of the older prelates, who made 
small account of "the splendor of religion, 
through fear of not being able to maintain 
it," he reports to the Holy See that the 
recently consecrated bishop of Clogher was 
most anxious for the restoration of the 
splendor and publicity of ecclesiastical 
ceremonies ; and that that personage, 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 31 

although guided by poHtical precedents, 
afforded a marked contrast to the old 
bishops, who, having passed through the 
days of persecution, were constantly 
haunted by a dread that such times might 
come again. They lacked resolution and 
boldness, but in the person of MacMahon he 
found all that he could desire, — a will con- 
formable to his own, and a spirit of daring, 
that was always prepared to encounter the 
most formidable emergencies. 

MacMahon, although occupying the place 
of a spiritual peer in the supreme council, 
was not advanced to the temporalities of 
his bishopric till after the battle of Benburb, 
when that victory gave the confederates a 
shortlived triumph in Ulster; but even 
then he resided less frequently in his 
diocese than in the immediate vicinit}^ of 
the nuncio and the camp of Owen O'Neill, 
who was entirely directed and influenced 
by his counsels. As might be expected, 
MacMahon subscribed the rejection of the 
peace of 1646, and took an active part in 
the congregation of the clergy at Waterford, 



32 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

where the bishops assumed the government, 
under the presidency of the nuncio, and 
committed the sad Ibhinder of caUing 
O'Neill's army from the pursuit of the Scotch 
puritans to support the new regime. 
Thenceforth he became, if possible, still 
more devoted to the nuncio, approved all 
his projects, and maintained that his policy 
and Owen O'Neill's sword were the sole 
means for rescuing Ireland from present 
and future oppression. 

Acting on this conviction, he caused 
O'Neill to signify to the nuncio that the 
preponderating military power which the 
victory of Benburb had secured for him, 
was entirely at his service, and that the 
Ulster forces were ready to march on 
Dublin whenever he might think fit to 
sanction that enterprise. The reduction 
of the capital, we need hardly say, was one 
of Einuccini's most cherished projects, and 
as MacMahon was well aware of this, he 
insisted that no time should be lost in 
making the attempt. The nuncio hesitated, 
not, indeed, through apprehension of 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 33 

failure, but ratlier from fear of giving 
umbrage to Queen Henrietta Maria, then at 
Paris; and it was not till after several 
weeks of inaction he resolved to summon 
the metropolis to surrender. 

In the beginning of autumn, 1646, O'Neill 
advanced with his Ulster men through the 
north of Leinster, and being joined by the 
forces under Preston, they pitched their 
camps at Leixlip and Newcastle, while the 
nuncio and MacMahon took up their quarters 
in the immediate vicinity, to hasten the 
operations of the two generals. Acting on 
the advice of Castlehaven, Ormond wasted 
the country all around before he retired 
into Dublin ; and as the winter had set in 
with unusual severity, the confederates 
were but ill supplied with provisions. Worst 
of all, the old jealousies between Preston 
and O'Neill had broken out afresh ; and to 
add to this complication of difficulties, Lord 
Clanricarde, a Catholic and hitherto neutral, 
appeared on the scene to tamper with 
Preston, whose hatred of O'Neill was only 
equalled by his want of firmness. In the 



34 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

midst of these dissensions, the nuncio felt 
himself bewildered, and apprehending that 
he must lose all chance of taking Dublin if 
he failed to unite the two generals, he went, 
accompanied by the bishop of Clogher, to 
Preston's quarters, to eifect a mutual under- 
standing. The Leinster general behaved 
on this occasion with marked reserve, and 
though he had been urged to aiTCst the 
bishop of Clogher, he refused to do so. The 
conference, however, did not bring about 
the desired reconciliation ; and much as the 
nuncio plumed himself on his courage in 
traversing the level country north of the 
city, "where a few straggling horsemen 
might have picked him up and carried him 
to Lord Ormond," all his efforts went for 
nothing ; so much so that, on a rumor of a 
parliamentary squadron having dropped 
anchor in the bay, O'Neill and Preston 
struck their tents and retired hastily in the 
direction of Kilkenny. 

At length, however, when news reached 
him that Preston had been defeated at Trim 
by Jones, to whom Lord Ormond surren- 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 35 

dered Dublin for a sum of thirteen thousand 
pounds, he wrote to Owen O'Neill to march 
with his army, and save Kilkenny from the 
parliamentary forces. The Ulster general 
gladly obeyed the summons, marched rap- 
idly on Trim, occupied the ground where 
Preston had been so shamefully routed, and 
kept Jones's troops in check for fully four 
months. The bold manoeuvi-e was, indeed, 
the salvation of the confederates ; for O'Neill's 
sudden appearance on the scene of the late 
disaster caused Jones to retire within the 
walls of Dublin, and abandon his design 
of reducing Kilkenny. MacMahon joined 
the Ulster general at Trim, and remained 
constantly in his camp till summoned by the 
nuncio to Kilkenny, to take part in the 
momentous debates which at that period 
distracted the confederate councils. 

At the close of 1647, the Ormondist fac- 
tion resolved, if possible, to get rid of the 
nuncio and his adherents ; and, in order to 
accomplish this, they gave out that the re- 
cent losses and widespread poverty from 
which the whole country was suffering 



36 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

could not be remedied, except by appeal- 
ing to the Pope and other potentates for 
assistance in money and munitions. It 
was also suggested that the terms proposed 
by Ormond, in 1646, should be reconsid- 
ered and accepted, provided the guaran- 
tees for religion were amplified ; and 
finally, that deputations should be sent to 
the various Catholic courts, to represent 
the miserable condition of the confederates, 
and obtain whatever aids they might be 
disposed to advance. This, indeed, was an 
adroit ruse to get shut of Rinuccini's parti- 
sans, and, according to the programme, it 
was voted and carried in the assembly, that 
MacMahon should proceed, with LordMusk- 
erry and Doctor Brown, to the court of 
Queen Henrietta Maria at Paris. The 
bishop, however, saw through the scheme, 
and resolved to defeat it. He, therefore, 
besought the council to substitute one in 
his place ; ^^ For," said he, ^' I am ignorant 
of the French and English languages, and 
the queen has conceived strong prejudices 
to me, as it has been told lier that I took 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 37 

an active part in promoting this war, and 
rejecting the peace of 1646. Moreover, 
I have reason to think that I would be 
liazarding my life were I to undertake this 
mission ; for Digby, the queen's secretary, 
and her special favorite, St. Germain, are 
my sworn enemies. Find some one else 
for this business ; for nothing shall induce 
me to embark in it." This declaration sur- 
prised and confounded the Ormondists ; 
and so indignant were Muskerry, Taaff, 
Preston, and others, that they waited on 
the mayor of Kilkenny, and charged him 
to have the bishop of Clogher placed under 
arrest for contumacy and breach of privi- 
lege. The mayor, however, instead of 
doing as they commanded, made the bishop 
an offer of his protection, alleging as his 
reason for doing so, that he did not feel 
himself bound to obey the order of the 
assembly in this instance. On hearing this, 
Preston left the city to assemble his troops 
that were encamped in the neighborhood ; 
detachments of the garrison were tm-ned 
out to patrol the streets, and the gates were 



38 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

closed to keep the bishop or any of his 
friends from communicating with O'Neill, 
whose tents were visible from the ramparts 
of the city. Next day, however, MacMahon 
took his place in the assembly ; but such 
was the excitement provoked by his 
appearance, that he was forced to retire 
while the Ormondists were gravely discuss- 
ing the legality of committing him to 
prison. That, indeed, was a serious ques- 
tion ; and those who were for incarcerating 
him cited countless precedents, furnished 
by history and the statute book; but, as 
the bishops then present demurred to such 
special pleading, the Ormondists insisted 
that a written order should be sent to Mac- 
Mahon, forbidding him to leave the city 
The bishops, however, would not sanction 
this ; and so strenuous was their opposi- 
tion, that the assembly caused their writtefi 
order to be cancelled, and commissioned 
their speaker to wait on MacMahon, and 
request him not to go beyond the walls. 
Irritated by this untoward proceeding, the 
nuncio insisted that the Ormondists had 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 39 

'^ violated ecclesiastical immunity," and 
were, consequently, bound to make repara- 
tion for their error, if they were not pre- 
pared to encounter the resentment of Owen 
O'Neill, who, in his camp at Maryborough, 
told the agent of the French court that he 
would never set foot in Kilkenny till am- 
ple apology had been made to the offended 
prelate, who was his especial friend and 
adviser. Alarmed at this, the assembly 
made the required atonement, and appoint- 
ed the Marquis of Antrim to be one of the 
deputation in lieu of the bishop of Clogher, 
whose presence in Ireland was indispensa- 
bly necessary at that moment, when Rinuc- 
cini was about to resort to those extreme 
measures, for the enforcement of which he 
required the aid of the carnal weapon. 

It is almost superfluous to say that the 
Bishop of Clogher figured prominently in 
the council of prelates who rejected Inchi- 
quin's truce, and from fourteen of whom 
Einuccini procured a conditional power, to 
excommunicate all favorers of that overture, 
in conjunction with four specified bishops, 



40 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

or in case of their non-attendance, with four 
to be named by himself Indeed, in this 
instance, MacMahon did nothing* more than 
what might have been expected from one 
Avhose antecedents proved that he was 
devotedly attached to the nuncio through- 
out, and the more so as the latter had always 
shown a decided preference for Owen O'Neill 
and the Catholics of Ulster. Actuated by 
such sentiments, he aided the nuncio in 
effecting his escape from Kilkenny, and 
accompanied him to O'Neill's camp at Mary- 
borough, where he tarried some time medi- 
tating what was best to be done at such a 
moment, and how he might be able to make 
his final exit from Ireland. Sad and peril- 
ous, indeed, was Rinuccini's sojourn with 
Owen Roe, for the forces which were then 
at his disposal could not cope with the 
united armies of Preston and Inchiquin, had 
they marched on Maryborough; but far 
more poignant than the apprehension he 
entertained of being surprised and utterly 
routed by his sworn enemies, was the in- 
timation which Rinuccini gave him of his 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 41 

approaching departure from the kingdom. 
O'Neill implored him to abandon his inten- 
tion, and MacMahon nrged that the great 
body of the clergy, notwithstanding the 
political defection of eight bishops, and 
three-fourths of the entire population, still 
adhered to his cause. But all in vain ; for 
Rinuccini clearly saw that no permanent 
benefit could come of his presence in Ire- 
land, and that he was utterly powerless to 
bring about a union of the conflicting 
parties who were more intent on sacrificing 
each other than acting in concert for the 
common good. Full of this conviction, he 
took leave of O'Neill, and proceeded to 
Athlone, where, on the refusal of the four 
authorized bishops to sanction his last and 
most daring measure, he summoned fom* 
others in their stead, and with their consent 
pronounced sentence of excommunication 
against the abettors of Inchiquin's truce, and 
laid all parts of the kingdom, where it would 
be accepted, under interdict. The bishop 
of Clogher subscribed the sentence, and had 
the gratification of learning soon afterwards 



42 



IRISH SOLDIERS. 



that two thousand of Preston's soldiers, 
terrified by the Church's thunders, had 
deserted that general, and ranged them- 
selves under O'Neill's standard. Elated by 
this momentary success, and exasperated 
by the Ormondists, who pronounced him 
guilty of high treason, O'Neill broke up his 
camp at Maryborough, and proceeded north- 
wards, in order to reenforce his little army. 
On this expedition he was accompanied by 
the bishop of Clogher, and such was the 
enthusiasm of the Ulstermen for both 
chieftain and prelate, that O'Neill soon found 
himself at the head of ten thousand infantry 
and fifteen hundred horse, indifferently 
armed it is true, but ready and willing to 
follow wherever their general might be 
disposed to lead them. With this contingent 
O'Neill and the bishop returned to Leinster, 
routed Preston, and then advanced by 
forced marches into the county Tipperary, 
where four thousand brave peasants en- 
rolled themselves under the confederate 
banners, and solemnly pledged themselves 
to stand by the cause of the "old Irish '^ 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 43 

and the Church. Nenag-h, Banagher, and 
other strong" places on the Shannon were 
speedily in the power of O'Neill's troops, 
and in this brief but brilliant campaign, the 
nuncio tells us that the Ulster chieftain 
defeated seven generals who were opposed 
to him, and thus, for the fifth time, saved 
religion and Ireland from the enemies of 
both. Having accomplished all this, O'Neill 
and the bishop returned to the north, to 
protect the people of that province from the 
inroads of the Parliamentarians. 

Meanwhile, Lord Ormond had resumed 
the government, and signified to the nuncio 
that he must quit the kingdom without 
further delay. The intimation was soon 
followed by that personage's departure for 
the shores of France, and O'Neill and his 
faithful adherent, the bishop of Clogher, 
were left to take whatever course they 
deemed best for the good of the country 
and their own preservation. Finding him- 
self thus abandoned by his former friends, 
and driven to desperation by want of 
provisions and military supplies, O'Neill 



44 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

was constrained to accept the overtures of 
Sir Charles Coote, who proposed to furnish 
him with a considerable quantity of powder 
and ball, on condition that he would march 
to the relief of Derry, then besieged by the 
Scotch, under Lord Montgomery. O'Neill 
accepted the offer, marched against the 
Scotch, who fled across the Bann at his 
approach, and was splendidly entertained 
at Derry by Coote, who professed himself 
under lasting obligations to his deliverer. 
This unnatural alliance, which nothing but 
extreme necessity could justify, was not 
destined to last, for the English Parliament 
rebuked Coote for treating with O'Neill; 
and the latter, disgusted with the hostility 
he experienced from those whom had he so 
generously relieved, resolved to break with 
them, and make a tender of his services to 
Lord Ormond. During liis short sojourn at 
Derry, O'Neill was seized with a mortal 
malady, occasioned, it was said, however 
unwarrantably, by poison, with which Coote 
caused his wine to be drugged, or, as others 
would have it, by a pau^ of poisoned russet 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 45 

boots, sent him by one Plunket of Louth, 
and in this condition he had to be carried 
in a horse-Htter to Cloughouter, the resi- 
dence of his brother-in-law. Colonel Philip 
O'Reilly. O'Neill's sufferings were painful, 
and, despite the science of the many phy- 
sicians who strove to save him, he sank 
gradually, " his hau' and nails falling off,'' 
and expired on the sixth of November, 1649. 
The bishop of Clogher never left the gallant 
patient's bedside during his protracted 
illness, but remained constantly there pre- 
paring him for the ^' doubtful transit," and 
^' receivina" his last instructions for the main- 
tenance of the Ulster army." Two days 
after the melancholy event, O'Reilly, the 
primate, Magennis, bishop of Down, and 
Heber, of Clogher, accompanied by all the 
kinsmen and officers of the deceased, fol- 
lowed his mortal remains to the Franciscan 
monastery of Cavan, and there committed 
them to a grave which, from that time to 
the present, has not had a single stone to 
distinguish it, and, doubtless, must remain 
so till the Irish people shall have learnt 



46 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

to worship the memory of their true 
heroes. 

Being thus deprived of their general, the 
officers of the Ulster army resolved that 
no time should be lost in electing some 
one to fill his place, and they accordingly 
assembled for that purpose at Belturbet, 
early in March, 1650. The meeting was 
held in the house of MacS weeny, bishop of 
Kilmore, who was named to preside on the 
momentous occasion. Among those present 
were the marquis of Antrim, Sir Phelim 
O'Neill, Henry O'Neill, Con MacCormack 
O'Neill, Lieutenant-GreneralO'Farrell, Philip 
MacHugh O'Reilly, Heber, bishop of 
Clogher, the bishop of Down, and many 
other ecclesiastics. The O'Neills contended 
that the generalship belonged of right to 
them, and that it was hereditary in their 
family. O'Farrel, on the other hand, 
maintained that he, as lieutenant-general 
to Owen Roe, was entitled to the command ; 
and the Marquis of Antrim pressed his own 
claims, which he grounded on the intimacy 
that had so long subsisted between himself 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 47 

and Owen Roe, to whom he had rendered 
many signal services. Tlie debate was 
protracted and stormy ; and the assembly, 
considering the danger that was likely 
to ensue by electing any of the aforesaid, 
even Henry, son of the deceased general, 
and the most deserving of all, resolved to 
put an end to future intrigue, by nom- 
inating Heber, bishop of Clogher, to the 
vacancy. As matter of com'se, this selec- 
tion could not please all parties, for some 
asserted that MacMahon was not equal to 
the requirements of the situation, and 
others, not having the fear of the con- 
sequences before their eyes, and affecting 
to be scandalized, did not shrink from 
asserting that the combination of crook 
and sword was a thing which no true 
Catholic could stomach. Withal, as there 
was no remedy for this seeming incon- 
gruity, they i-esolved to follow wheresoever 
the bishop would lead them, for they knew 
that he was the depositary of Owen 
O'Neill's confidence, and fully cognizant of 
the treaty which the latter had concluded 



48 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

with Lord Ormond just one month before 
his decease. 

Having now assumed the command, the 
bishop lost no time in mustering his troops, 
and being joined by detachments of Ulster- 
men, drafted from the garrison of Water- 
ford, and several regiments which had 
seen service in Leinster and Connaught, 
under O'Cahan and other distin^-uished 
officers, he marched into the county 
Monaghan at the head of an army amount- 
ing to about 5,000 foot and 600 horse. 
The influence of MacMahon's name and 
lineage in his native province caused 
midtitudes of young recruits to rally round 
his standard, and, in the course of a few 
months, he had the satisfaction of seeing 
his available force largely increased, and 
well-disciplined by O'Farrell, whose com- 
mission of lieutenant-general had been 
confirmed by the Belturbet council. Leav- 
ing that officer in temporary command, the 
bishop proceeded to Loughreagh, in order 
to take counsel with Lords Ormond and 
Clanricarde, and procure for them such aids 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 49 

as were required for carrying on the war 
against Sir Charles Coote, Venables, and 
other leaders, who, notwithstanding the 
recent murder of king Charles I and the 
proclaiming of his successor, still stood out 
in open rebellion to the king. Ormond re- 
ceived the bishop cordially, condoled with 
him on the death of O'Neill, in whose 
honor, he said, he always placed implicit 
trust; and, after congratulating him as 
successor to the deceased general, confirmed 
the appointment with a commission of the 
following tenor : — 

" To our trusty and well-beloved bishop, 
Ever MacMaJwn, 

" Okmond. 

" Whereas, upon the treaty with general 
Owen O'Neill, deceased, it was, amongst 
other particulars, concluded and agreed 
upon, that, in case of death or removal of 
him, such other general or commander-in- 
chief should be authorized by commission 
from us to command his Majesty's forces 
of the province of Ulster, natives of the 
kingdom, as should be by general consent 

4 



50 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

of the gentry of that province elected and 
made choice of for the same. And where- 
as, in a general meeting lately held by the 
gentry for that purpose, it was agreed upon, 
and represented unto us, that you should 
exercise that command over the said forces, 
we, therefore, upon the consideration there- 
of, and of the care, judgment, valor, and 
experience in martial affairs, as also of the 
readiness and good affections of you to 
do his majesty service, have nominated 
and appointed, and we do hereby nominate 
and appoint you, the said bishop, Ever 
MacMahofij to be general of all his Majesty's 
said forces of horse and foot, of the province 
of Ulster, natives of the kingdom. Given, 
&c., &c." 

Having concerted with Ormond and 
Clanricarde the plan of the approaching 
campaign, and obtained from them assurance 
of plentiful supplies of field artillery, 
victuals, and ammunition, MacMahon re- 
turned to Monaghan, and placing himself 
at the head of his army, marched on Char- 
lemont, where he and his chief officers 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 51 

published a manifesto, in which they 
invited the Scots to forget the animosities 
that had hitherto existed between them and 
the Irish, and to sink all distinction of nation 
and religion for the sake of the royal interest 
and service. Many of the Scots were con- 
verted to royalism by this appeal, but the 
great majority of Coote's forces revolted at 
the idea of serving under the standard of a 
"popish bishop," no matter what side of the 
quarrel he chose to take, and therefore re- 
solved to share the fortunes of their old 
leaders. 

Seeing there was no hope of detaching 
the Scots from Coote and Yenable^, the 
bishop resolved to attack them in detail, 
and, if possible, prevent the juncture of 
their respective forces, as neither of them 
would have been able to fio^ht him sing-le- 
handed. With this object, he marched 
northwards along Bann, stormed Dungiven, 
Ballycastle, and other places of no great 
importance, and finally crossed the Foyle, 
near Liiford, in order to maintain a com- 
munication, througli Ballyshannon, with 



52 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Connauglit, whence he expected the suppHes 
promised by Ormond and Clanricarde. 
This, however, proved to be a disastrous 
manoeuvre, for it enabled Venables to send 
Coote, who was then encamped at Skirfolas, 
in the neighborhood of Letterkenny, a rein- 
forcement of one thousand veteran soldiers, 
who had seen service under Monro, from 
the commencement of the Irish war. On 
the twenty-first of June, 1650, the two 
armies were within an hour's march of each 
other; and as both were pretty equally 
matched, the bishop resolved to risk a battle, 
contrary to the advice of his most 
experienced officers, who insisted that he 
should hold a council of war, and abide by 
the decision of the majority. To this he 
submitted reluctantly, and while he and 
his chiefs were engaged in discussing the 
momentous question, a woman of uncommon 
stature, gaunt and dressed in white, forced 
her way into their midst, and quoted an old 
prophecy which foretold that the Irish were 
doomed to be overthrown on the banks of 
the Swilly. MacMahon, however, paid little 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 53 

heed to the crazed virago, and, perhaps, less 
to the unanswerable arguments of Henry 
Koe O'Neill, who urged that instead of en- 
gaging the enemy on broken ground where 
the Irish troops could not act with precision, 
it would be more prudent to wait till the 
former should be obliged, through want of 
provisions, to shift their quarters, when it 
would be easy to fall on them, and cut them 
up in detail. It was also urged, that the 
force at the bishop's disposal had been weak- 
ened by the absence of a large body which 
he detached to seize Castle Doe ; but all 
arguments were thrown away upon him, 
for he was obstinate as he was rashly brave. 
The attack of the Irish was impetuous, but, 
as Henry O'Neill had foretold, the rugged 
and stony nature of the ground would not 
suffer them to act in compact masses, and 
notwithstanding all their chivalry, they were 
taken in flank and rear by Coote's forces, 
who, in the course of a few hours, routed 
them with slaughter. Eighteen captains of 
the O'Farrells were slain on the fatal field, 
and fifteen hundred of the common soldiers 



54 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

perished before the fire of Coolers musketeers. 
Henry O'Neill and many others of his name 
and kindred were captured, and brought to 
Deny, where Coote had them summarily 
executed, after quarter given, and notwith- 
standing the heavy ransom which was 
offered for their lives. 

As for Bishop McMahon, he contrived to 
make his escape from the bloody field of 
Letterkenny, in company with Lieutenant- 
General O'Farrell, and some squadrons of 
horse, riding day and night, without meat or 
drink, for twenty-four hours, till he and his 
jaded followers reached the neighborhood of 
Enniskillen, where they were set upon by a 
detachment of the garrison. The bishop's 
escort offered what resistance they could, 
but were soon obliged to yield to superior 
force, and surrender at discretion. He 
himself was severely wounded in this last 
action, and so was O'Farrell; but less 
fortunate than the latter, who made his 
escape, MacMahon was carried prisoner to 
Enniskillen, and there committed to the 
common jail, to wait Coote's final sentence. 



A FIGHTING BISHOP. 55 

The close of MacMalion's career was sucli 
as might have been expected from one, a 
goodly portion of whose life had been 
divided between the church and the camp ; 
and much as the Cromwellian troopers 
admired his undaunted resolution, they 
never were so deeply impressed by it as on 
tliat July evening when they escoited him 
to the ancient castle of Enniskillen, — the 
place appointed for his execution. March- 
ing some paces in advance of the mus- 
keteers, his bearing was calm, dignified, and 
martial, so much so, that a casual wayfarer 
mioflit have mistaken him for the officer 
in command, were it not for the 
presence of an ecclesiastic, with whom he 
conversed in tones inaudible to every one 
else, and a small gold crucifix that he kept 
constantly moving between his lips and 
e3^es. On reaching the scaffold he knelt 
and prayed in silence for a while, and then, 
turning to the troops who kept the ground, 
told them that he thanked God for having 
given him that opportunity of laying down 
his life in the cause of religion, king, and 



56 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

country. MacMahon's soul had scarcely 
gone to its account, when the executioner, 
in compliance with the barbarous usage of 
the times, flung the corse to the ground, 
hacked off the head, and spiked it on the 
tower of the castle, where it remained till 
birds of prey, rain, storm, and time destroyed 
every vestige of the ghastly trophy. The 
mutilated trunk, however, had a sympathiz- 
ing Catholic to convey it to Devenish 
Island, where it waits the resurrection, 
under the shadow of St. Laserian's oratory. 



PATRICK SAKSFIELD. 57 



PATRICK SARSFIELD. 

DEFENCE OF LIMERICK. 

Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, whose 
name is perhaps more familiar in the memory 
of his countrymen than that of any other 
national soldier since the days of the 
" mighty Brian," was chiefly remarkable for 
his bravery, dash, and rapidity of conception 
during the Williamite wars ; for his career 
on the continent was short, though distin- 
guished. In mental capacity and tempera- 
ment he bore a close resemblance to our 
own Major-General ^^Phil" Sheridan, though 
in physical proportions he was much su- 
perior to the hero of Winchester, for he was 
of lofty stature and possessed rare muscular 
power ; qualities, which in his day, when 
hand-to-hand encounters were so frequent, 
were of much greater value to a command- 
ing general than they are now. 



58 IKISH SOLDIERS. 

Sarsfield learned the rudiments of his 
military education in France, and subse- 
quently held a commission in the English 
Guards under James II, when that monarch, 
by the advice of Tyrconnel, recruited his 
army in England from the sister kingdom, 
and, despite the penal laws, appointed a 
great many Catholic officers to command in 
it. When William of Orange landed in 
England, Sarsfield returned to Ireland ; and 
when James arrived there from France to 
make a last effort for the throne, he received 
the appointment of Brigadier- General, his 
command consisting of mixed infantry and 
calvary, but principally of the latter. At 
the head of those troops during the siege 
of Derry and the entire campaign of 1689, 
he did most efficient service, scouring the 
northern and western counties, cutting off 
marauding parties and other detachments 
of the enemy, and capturing provisions and 
military stores. His activity was so great 
as to give an air of ubiquity to his person, 
and he was known to have appeared with 
his rough-riders in places fifty or sixty miles 



PATRICK 5ARSFIELD. 59 

apart in the space of twenty-four hours : 
a feat which, considering the badness of the 
roads and the condition of the country at 
that time, necessarily created a good deal 
of astonishment among friends and enemies. 
At the battle of the Boyne he was equally 
distinguished for his tact and impetuous 
charges. With Berwick and Hamilton, he 
commanded King James's horse on that dis- 
astrous day, and was ever found in the 
thick of the fight; right, left, or centre, 
wherever danger threatened, or his com- 
rades seemed about to be overpowered, 
his presence was sure to be the signal 
of success. Like the illustrious Henry of 
Navarre, his plume was the standard round 
which the soldiers fought — at least those of 
Irish birth. It was, however, in the defence 
of the city of Limerick, that Lord Lucan 
displayed his great abilities and unshaken 
fortitude to the greatest advantage. After 
the defeat of the Boyne, the surrender of 
Dublin, and the flight of the timid king to 
France, the Irish army and its French allies 
retreated on the Shannon, the best line of 



60 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

defence in the country, and one that should 
have been adopted in the first instance. 
Athlone and Limerick, both on that river, 
the first commanding the road into Con- 
naught, and the other at the head of tide 
water, and in uninterrupted communica- 
tion with the continent, were the two princi- 
pal positions to be defended; and though 
both were indifferently fortified, it became 
of the utmost consequence that they should be 
held, particularly the latter city. A council 
of war was convened, at which Lausan, the 
commander-in-chief, and most of the French 
officers were of opinion that Limerick was 
imtenable, having at the time, according 
to the Duke of Berwick, ^^ no other fortifica- 
tions than a wall without ramparts and a 
few miserable towers without ditches." 
Sarsfield, Berwick, and other Irish officers 
of distinction differed with them ; and, 
believing that the fall of Limerick would 
be fatal to their cause, declared their deter- 
mination to defend it to the last extremity 
with their own troops, should their for- 
eign allies abandon them. They were taken 



PATRICK SARSFIELD. 61 

at their word, and Lausan accordingly- 
inarched off his men to the west side of the 
Shannon and thence to Galway, taking 
with him a large quantity of ammunition, 
supplies, &c. ; and thus, weakened in men 
and munitions, the Irish troops were left to 
defend the city as best they might. They 
went to work, however, with great spiiit ; 
and every thing that could be done to 
strengthen their defences, was essayed pre- 
vious to the appearance of William before 
its walls on the eighth day of August. 
Meanwhile apart of the Anglo-Dutch troops 
under Major-General Douglass had been 
sent against Athlone ; but meeting with a 
sterner resistance from the garrison there 
than they were led to expect, and fearing 
an attack in the rear from the troops in 
Limerick, he raised the siege and joined 
William. The latter's army, when he com- 
menced the siege, is estimated, even by 
English authorities, at over thirty-eight 
thousand, with several pieces of artillery and 
a plentiful supply of requisite ammunition. 
After taking a critical survey of the Irish 



62 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

position, William and bis general officers 
resolved to commence a regular investment 
of tlie town, by throwing up works around 
it and establishing two batteries of five and 
four guns each, to dominate the frail 
defences of their adversaries. Unfortu- 
nately for the Irish, they were now com- 
manded by Tyrconnel, a nobleman more 
accustomed to courts than camp life, and 
who, from ignorance or natural timidity, it 
is alleged, greatly embarrassed the move- 
ments of his more skilled and enterprising 
subordinates, Berwick and Sarsfield, to 
whom was left the defence of Limerick, 
while the commander-in-chief idled away 
his time with the French in Galway. 

William, after a few days' bombardment, 
found his guns too light to make any im- 
pression on the works, and he consequently 
ordered from Dublin a battering train of 
eight heavy guns, five mortars, one hun- 
dred and fifty-three wagon loads of ammuni- 
tion, eighteen tin pontoons, four hundred 
draught-horses, and twelve wagons filled 
with biscuit. This important supply train 



PATRICK SARSFIELD. 63 

was convoyed by a mere handful of troops, 
probably not more than two hundred men; 
for so pacified had the intervening country 
become by the march of Anglo-Dutch 
through it, that a stronger guard was not 
considered necessary. All this became 
known to the besieged through two French 
deserters from the enemy; and Sarsfield, 
with his usual promptness, conceived the 
idea of intercepting and destroying the 
expected succors. Under the cover of 
the darkness of midnight, he crossed Tho- 
mond bridge at the head of six hundred of 
his horsemen, and, carefully avoiding the 
sentinels and videttes of the enemy, he 
gained the open country and awaited in 
concealment the approach of the enemy at 
Bally nee ty in the county of Tipperary, a 
few miles from Limerick. William on his 
side had, soon after their departui'e, obtained 
information of this daring movement of the 
Irish, and ordered a strong body of cavalry 
under Sir John Lanier to prevent it. They 
were too late. As soon as night fell on the 
escort quietly encamped after a long march, 



64 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Sarsfield rode down on them with his usual 
impetuosity, and those of it that were not 
killed or wounded fled right and left. All 
the guns, stores, and horses fell into the 
hands of the victors. They loaded the 
cannon and mortars to the muzzle and 
buried them in the ground breach upwards, 
th'en placed the ammunition upon them, next 
the gun carriages, biscuit wagons, and pon- 
toons, and setting fire to the whole, caused 
such an explosion that the sky is said to 
have been illuminated for several miles 
around, and the concussion was sensibly 
felt in the beleaguered city, signalling to 
those in the secret the success of the expe- 
dition. The horses were of course pre- 
served, as well as a hundred others belonging 
to the regiment of Villiers, which were 
found ready saddled and were all brought 
into the city by Sarsfield, who, having 
made a detour to avoid the cavalry which 
had been sent to cut off his return, crossed 
the river at Banagher and entered the town 
in triumph, without having lost a man. 
This, the most brilliant and, for the num- 



PATRICK SARSFIELD. 65 

bers employed, the most decisive exploit of 
the war, justly increased Lucan's popularity 
and fame, and gave renewed courage to the 
besieged, while the loss of such valuable 
munitions paralyzed for a time the efforts of 
William^s army. At the end of a week, 
however, he contrived to supply his loss, by 
procuring another train of siege guns 
from Waterford, which, having been placed 
in the most advantageous position, were 
trained on the devoted city, and night and 
day kept thundering away at its crumbling 
earthworks and ruined towers. Nor were 
the Irish idle; for, though inferior in the 
number and calibre of their guns, and their 
ammunition reduced to fifty kegs of pow- 
der, they kept up as constant a fire on the 
enemy's lines as circumstances would 
permit. 

At length the day arrived, the 27th of 
August, 1690, a day ever memorable in 
the history of Limerick and in the annals 
of Irish heroism, upon which William had 
fixed to take the place by storm. The 
defences had become but a confused mass 

5 



66 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

of rubbisli under the incessant cannonading 
of the previous days, and he resolved to 
drive out their stubborn defenders by sheer 
force. The Irish, on their side, antici- 
pating the attack, prepared for it as well as 
it was possible. At either side of the 
breach were two columns of infantry, with 
a reserve stationed in the public square, 
while the Black Battery, the principal 
point of defence, was well manned and 
its guns double-shotted, to meet any 
emergency. Five hundred of the Irish 
Guards held St. John's gate, and musketeers 
thinly lined the trenches. The sun rises 
bright and fair over that city, so soon to 
be the scene of dreadful tm-moil and car- 
nage. William's cannon, at a given signal, 
open along the whole line of his works, 
and belch forth destruction and death. 
Under its cover a solid column of ten 
thousand veterans of many nations — 
English, Dutch, Danes, Brandenburgers 
and Enniskilleners (the latter the fore- 
fathers of our modern Orangemen) — 
advance on the Irish works with a pluck 



PATRICK SARSFIELD. 67 

and steadiness that argue niiscliief for tlieir 
heroic defenders. First come the British 
Grenadiers, supported by the Dutch 
Guards, the two best regiments in the army. 
They are allowed to approach in silence, 
and even to pass over the debris of the 
stockades, when the guns of the Black 
Battery open on them at short range. The 
fire is teri'ibly destructive, their ranks are 
decimated, and they pause in dismay and 
consternation. This is the signal for an 
oblique fire on either flank from the infantry 
posted at the breach, in the ditches, and 
even in the windows of the adjoining 
houses. Still, like brave men, the grena- 
diers and guards rally and renew the attack, 
with the same result. The British are 
almost annihilated, and the Dutch have 
suff*ered heavily. But wave after wave 
succeeds, and the Irish, exhausted, weak- 
ened, and overpowered, give way, the 
trenches are captured, a portion of the 
streets is occupied by the enemy, and the 
last stronghold of the patriots, the Black 
Battery, has been captured by the Bran- 



68 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

denburgers after a bloody straggle. The 
day seemed to be lost irretrievably. So 
at least thought William, and so, per- 
haps, thought also the defenders, but Ber- 
wick and Sarsfield. The latter, having 
foreseen the probability of such a result, 
had prepared for the emergency. The 
Battery had been mined. The moment had 
now come when it should be sprung. Just 
as the colonel of the Brandenburgers is 
waving his sword in triumph, and his men 
are cheering for the supposed victory, a 
low rumbling noise like that of an earth- 
quake is heard beneath their feet, and ere 
one of that devoted regiment had time to 
say, " Lord have mercy on me," they are 
hurled lifeless and shattered into the air, 
and their dismembered limbs are falling 
in showers upon their late companions-in- 
arms. 

The pause which ensued was more dread- 
ful than the tumult that preceded it, but 
it was Sarsfield's opportunity. Rallying his 
broken columns, and placing himself con- 
spicuously at their head, he renewed the 



PATRICK SARSFIELD. GO 

defence; and diiving tlie assailants from 
street to street, he forced them over the 
works into the river, and, such as remained 
of them, back to their camp, defeated and 
disorganized. Not only did the men of the 
town not in arms, but tlie women and even 
the children, it is said, shared in the glory 
of this rescue of the Saragossa of Ireland ; 
and many young and delicately nurtured 
ladies were found after the combat amonofst 
the slain by the side of their fathers, hus- 
bands, brothers, and sweethearts. Story, a 
very partial English historian, says of this 
attack and repulse : — ^^ The Irish then ven- 
tiu'ed upon the breach again ; and from the 
walls and every place so pestered us upon 
the counterscarp, that after nigh three hours 
resisting bullets, stones (broken bottles from 
the very women, who boldly stood in the 
breach and were nearer to our men than 
their own), and whatever ways could be 
thought on to destroy us, our ammunition 
being spent, it was judged safest to return 
to our trenches."* Those Limerick women, 

* Imp. Hist., p. 129. 



70 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

the descendants of whom are still so famed 
for their grace and delicacy, were the 
mothers and sisters of many of the gallant 
soldiers of the Brigade. To them might well 
be applied Byron's eulogy on the Spanish 
heroine : — 

"Her lover sinks — she sheds no ill-timed tear; 

Her chief is slain — she fills his fatal post ; 
Her fellows flee — she checks their base career ; 

The foe retires — she heads the rallying host. 
Who can appease her like a lover's ghost ? 

Who can avenge so well a leader's fall ? 
What maid retrieve when man's flush'd hope is lost ? 

Who hangs so fiercely on the flying Gaul, 
Foiled by a woman's hand, before a battered wall ?" 

The following day William acknowledged 
his defeat, by asking permission to bury his 
dead ; a favor which, for sufficient reasons, 
was not granted, the Irish most cheerfully 
agreeing to perform that last office for their 
enemies. Despairing of eventually captur- 
ing a place which even the women and chil- 
dren were resolved to defend to the death, 
he withdrew his guns, broke up camp, and 
marched his army northeastward, a sadder 
if not a wiser man. He shortly after took 



PATRICK SARSFIELD. 71 

sliipping from Duncannon, leaving Ireland 
for ever ; and it would have been better for 
his reputation, if he never had visited it. 

His entire loss in killed and wounded 
before Limerick is generally estimated at 
five thousand, including one thousand and 
sixty-two men and ninety-seven officers 
killed during the assault of the 27th of 
August, wdiile that of the Irish on the 
occasion did not amount to half that 
number. 

Thus ended the first siege of the ^'City 
of the Broken Treaty," broken, too, by the 
very man who was obliged to retreat igno- 
miniously from its walls, and who, of all 
men, had the best reason to know, if not to 
appreciate, the bravery of its men and the 
devotion and heroism of its fair daughters. 
But the Prince of Orange was always cold- 
blooded, ungrateful ; and his apotheosis may 
be fittingly left to the Orangemen, and 
such elaborate falsifiers as Macaulay. 

The campaign of 1691 was again on the 
line of the Shannon, the Limerick garrison, 
after the retreat of William, having in great 



72 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

part made a junction with the troops at 
Galway and Athlone. This latter place, the 
^' centre of Ireland," was besieged in the 
spring of that year by Baron Ginkle, 
commander-in-chief, and, after a protracted 
and gallant defence, taken by storm. Then 
followed the disaster of Aughrim, the d^atli 
of St. Ruth, and the surrender of Gralway 
through the treachery of O'Donnell and the 
treason of Lords Riverston and Daily. 
Sarsfield, who had been lately promoted 
major-general and created Earl of Lucan, 
Viscount TuUy, and Baron of Rosberry, in 
reward for his gallant conduct in defence of 
Limerick, again threw him self into Limerick 
with seven regiments, resolved to defend it 
to the last, and, while waiting for French 
succors, to delay the enemy's advance by 
every possible means. On the eleventh of 
August, Tyrconnel died suddenly in a fit 
of apoplexy, and was succeeded by Lieu- 
tenant- General d' Ussan; and as Berwick 
had gone to France to hasten the supplies 
promised by Louis XIV, the burden of the 
defence fell upon Lucan. In the middle 



PATRICK SARSFIELD. 73 



of the same month the Anglo-Dutch army 
appeared before the city, and on the 
thirtieth opened fire on the works. This 
time it was supported by twenty EngUsh 
armed ships, which had passed up the 
estuary of the Shannon and covered with 
their guns the south side of the city. 
The constant fire of this fleet and the 
land batteries soon reduced the town 
and its hastily reconstructed works to an 
undistinguishable heap of ruins : still 
Sarsfield's men presented so bold a front, 
and were so ready to meet any assault or 
make a rally, that the Dutch general feared 
to hazard a general attack, and even wrote 
to his master for reinforcements and sup- 
plies. But the days of Limerick's indepen- 
dence were numbered. Treason lurked in 
the patriots' camp, and several prominent 
Anglo-Irish officers of high rank, among 
whom was Brigadier Henry Lutterell, were 
discovered in correspondence with the 
enemy. Provisions, too, began to get 
short, and the ammunition was almost 
run out ; the expected French supply not 



74 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

having arrived, though eagerly hoped for. 
Under these adverse circumstances, and 
overborne by the foreign officers, who were 
anxious to return home, and by some of the 
Irish bishops, who hoped for reHgious 
toleration of their flocks if Ginkle^s terms 
were accepted, the heroic Sarsfield was 
reluctantly compelled to surrender the city, 
but still on terms which, if they had been 
faithfully kept by the English government, 
would have proved alike honorable to the 
soldiers and, comparatively speaking, very 
favorable to the Irish people. 

In the Autumn of 1691, Lord Lucan 
passed to the continent with the remnant 
of the Irish army, and was commissioned 
by King James commander of his second 
troop of Irish Horse- Guards, in the service 
of France. In July, 1692, when the allies 
under William III were defeated at Clentu'k 
by de Luxemburg, Sarsfield greatly distin- 
guished himself, was complimented by that 
illustrious marshal, and appointed major- 
general by the French monarch. Again, in 
July of the following year, when de 



PATRICK SARSFIELD. 75 

Luxembui'g at Landen gained a more 
decisive and glorious tiiumpli over the 
usurper of James's throne and the im- 
placable enemy of Ireland, Sarsfield, at the 
head of some French troops, part of Lieu- 
tenant- General Rubantel's command, was 
as usual remarkable for his desperate 
charges on the enemy's positions and for 
his uniform success. It was in the last of 
those charges, and in the very moment of 
victory, that he fell mortally wounded, a 
bullet having pierced his breast. While 
lying on the field, which his valor had so 
materially helped to win, he took in his 
hand some of the blood that flowed from 
his wound, and gazing at it for a while 
in silence, he mournfully exclaimed to those 
around him : — 

" Oh ! THAT THIS HAD BEEN SHED FOR 

Ireland." 



76 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



SERGEANT COSTUME. 

THE SIEGE OF ATHLONE. 

In June, 1691, Baron Ginkle, commander- 
in-chief of the Williamite army, appeared 
before Athlone and summoned it to sur- 
render. As it was gan'isoned by the Irish 
troops, many of whom had seen the defeat 
of Wilham and of this same Ginkle at 
Limerick, and were commanded by such 
officers as Sarsfield, O'Reilly, and Fitzgerald, 
it is unnecessary to record their answers. 
The Dutch general then proceeded to open 
fire on the works in the usual manner. 

Those acquainted with the topography 
of Ireland are aware that Athlone is bisected 
by the Shannon, the portion on the Con- 
naught side being known as Irishtown, and 
that on the eastern as Englishtown. At 
that time both parts were connected by a 
single stone bridge. After some days 



SERGEANT COSTUME. 77 

spent in cannonading, Ginkle resolved 
first to capture Englislitown, which, be- 
sides being" weakly fortified, had only 
about four hundred defenders. The Franco- 
Irish generals preferred to make their 
grand stand on the west side of the river, 
as being a stronger position and in easy 
communication with their base of supplies. 
The preliminary bombardment having 
eifected a breach in and early levelled 
the works of Englishtown, an attacking 
column of four thousand picked men 
were ordered to take it. This was easier 
said than done, though the assailants out- 
numbered their opponents just ten to one. 
Colonel Fitzgerald met the head of the 
column by a well-directed fire from his few 
pieces of artillery and a withering discharge 
of musketry ; and then, ordeiing his little 
band to charge, gallantly repulsed the 
enemy. Again and again the attack was re- 
newed and as bravely met, till FitzgerakVs 
men were reduced to a mere handful. Re- 
inforcements were ordered up by Ginkle, 
and, overpowered by numbers, the few that 



78 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

were left of the Irish, after another desperate 
encounter, slowly and in good order retired, 
not, however, without destroying the arches 
of the bridge that connected the two parts 
of the town. We are not aware of any in- 
stance in history where a more gallant de- 
fence was made for so long a time by so 
small a body of men against such superior 
numbers of well appointed and veteran 
soldiers. 

But an incident occurred shortly after 
which threw the heroism of Fitzgerald^s 
men into the shade. In reading it, our 
thoughts are carried back to the traditional 
ages of antiquity, when coui-age in the 
service of one's country was placed first 
among the cardinal virtues. It happened 
this way : — 

Ginkle, after taking the English town, 
erected his batteries there, and played with 
such effect on the works on the other side 
of the river that, on the twenty-eighth of 
June, he resolved to make an attack on the 
Irish stronghold. Under cover of his 
heavy fire, the broken arches of the bridge 



SERGEANT COSTUME. 79 

had been rendered passable by planks being 
laid over them, and as the Irish cannon had 
been dismounted and siliiiced, he ordered 
his troops to pass over and assail Irishtown. 
Sarsfield beheld the preparations for attack, 
but was powerless to prevent it, and so pre- 
pared as well as he could to meet it; but 
his arrangements, for that day at least, were 
prematm*e. All the heroism in the Irish 
army was not confined to the commissioned 
officers. A sergeant named Costume, a cor- 
ruption no doubt of some good old Gaelic 
name, saw a chance of assisting the general 
cause, and was quick enough to take advan- 
tage of it. As the soldiers of Ginkle were 
forming to cross the bridge, he volunteered 
his services to remove the planks, even in 
the very face of the enemy; ten others 
instantly joined him, and the devoted little 
squad, ^^ the best eleven of Ireland," rushed 
forward and coolly commenced to pitch 
the planks and scantlings over the parapet. 
This manoeuvre struck both sides with 
astonishment and admu^ation, but on the 
side of the Anglo-Dutch it was only 



80 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

momentary ; for, opening upon the brave 
fellows, they swept the bridge with grape 
and solid shot and riddled the very planks 
with musket-balls. Nine of the eleven fell 
beneath the deadly shower, and but two 
escaped ; but the work was done ; and for 
that time, at least, Irishtown was safe from 
the embraces of William's hordes. History 
is silent as to whether Costume survived this 
heroic feat. We are inclined to think he did 
,not, but let us hope that, in the future, 
^^ Ireland, a nation, will build him a tomb." 
In Greece or Eome, such bravery would 
have rendered his name immortal ; in 
America, his memory would have been pre- 
served in a thousand ways; but as he 
belonged to a persecuted race and a mis- 
represented country, few readers of modern 
times, except, perhaps, the curious students 
of antiquarian historical lore, have even 
heard or read of his name. As the great 
lyric poet has said of his country : — 

"Unprized are her sons till they learn to betray ; 
Undistinguished they live, if they shame not their sires ; 
And the torch that would light them to dignity's way 
Must be caught from the pyre where their country 
expires." 



UNDRESS UNIFORM. 81 



UNDKESS UNIFORM. 

THE SURPRISE OF CREMONA. 

In Janiiaiy, 1702, after a repulse by 
Prince Eugene, Marshal Villeroy, com- 
mander of the French forces in Italy, re- 
tired with his small araiy of five thousand 
men behind the fortifications of Cremona ; 
his opponents, the Germans, also going 
into winter quarters between that city and 
Mantua, so as to watch both positions. 
But Eugene, one of the most skilful and 
energetic generals of his day, could not 
remain idle, and he resolved, with the 
assistance of some traitors within the walls, 
to surprise and capture Cremona. His 
plans were well and secretly laid, and their 
execution, up to a certain point, was can-ied 
out with great exactness and system. 

The Po river flows by the walls of the 
city, and this was crossed at Firengola by 

6 



82 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Prince Charles of Vaudemont with three 
thousand men, five hundred of whom were 
cavahy. His duty was to attack and 
carry the gate of the Po on the north side, 
as soon as the main body had entered the 
city by the opposite side. To effect this lat- 
ter movement, eleven hundred men, under 
Count Kufstein, were introduced into the 
city by a long-unused aqueduct, who, on 
their entry, quickly secured a considerable 
portion of the rampart, while three hundred 
men were detailed to tear down the mason- 
ry which blockaded the gate of St. Margaret, 
and thus admit Eugene, Staremberg, and 
Commerci, with a force of seven thousand 
men. The instructions were carried out to 
the letter, and before the French had any 
intimation of the movement, the Germans 
were in possession of the great square and 
their cavalry were patrolling the streets, 
cutting down the French soldiers as they 
emerged in twos and threes from their 
quarters. 

Villeroy, who was awakened by the un- 
usual noise, arose, and hastily dressing him- 



UNDRESS UNIFORM. 83 

self, rushed into the street accompanied 
only, it is said, by a page. But meeting 
with a detachment of Imperial Cuirassiers, 
he was recognized and taken prisoner. His 
captor was a Captain McDonnell, an Irish 
officer in the Austrian service ; and finding 
that he had fallen into the hands of one 
whom he believed to be a mere soldier of 
fortune, he attempted to regain his liberty 
by offering him the most tempting bribes. 
A large sum of money and the command of 
a regiment of horse are said to have been the 
inducements held out by Villeroy to the 
Captain; but, with true Irish fidelity and 
military honor, the offer was rejected, and 
McDonnell bore off his distinguished 
prisoner in triumph. 

While Eugene was thus successful on 
his side, Vaudemont approached the Po 
gate, and Count Merci, who commanded the 
cavalry, assaulted it with his usual impet- 
uosity. He was met by a withering fire 
from the guai*d, composed of only thirty- 
five Irish soldiers, who used theu* weapons 
with such effect that the whole of Mercies 



84 IKISH SOLDIERS. 

force were repulsed and obliged to skirt the 
ramparts, where, however, they discovered 
and captured a battery of French guns. This 
undoubtedly was the turning point of the 
engagement ; for, if Vaudemont's force of 
three thousand had been able to pass in by 
this gate and form a junction with the main 
body, the gallant defenders would have been 
completely destroyed or captured — ground 
between the upper and nether millstones. 

The little body of men who thus so 
materially contributed to change the for- 
tunes of the day, was part of two Irish 
regiments then within the walls. Those 
were the regiments of Dillon of the old 
brigade, commanded on that occasion by 
Major O'Mahony, and the Athlone regiment 
of Colonel Burke, commanded by Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Wauchop. Of the two com- 
mandants, the former, though inferior in 
rank, seems to have been the most conspic- 
uous on that eventful day ; the other having 
been wounded early in the affra}^. The 
first attack was made about three o'clock in 
the morning ; and that vigilant officer, who 



UNDRESS UNIFORM. 85 

had given orders the night previous for 
an early drill and parade, lay down in his 
clothes to rest. On the first alarm of danger 
he made his way to the barracks of the 
two reo^iments to arouse them from their 
slumbers, but, to his astonishment, and, no 
doubt, to his great satisfaction, he found 
them already forming in the street, fully 
armed and equipped, but with no clothing 
on them hut their shirts. No time was to be 
lost; so, instantly leading them to the 
ramparts now in possession of Merci, he 
swept that general's forces before him and 
recaptured the cannon. Meanwhile, the 
Chevalier d'Estregue, with the regiment 
des Vaisseaux, and such other troops as he 
could rally, took post in a corner of the 
great square, and kept up a well-directed 
fire on the Imperialists, while Count Revel 
succeeded in capturing All-Saints Gate, 
thougli defeated in his attempt to retake 
that of St. Margaret. It was now ten 
o'clock, and the Irish troops had remained 
exposed for several hours to the inclem- 
ency of the weatlier in their night-shirts ; 



86 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

but the struggle is far from being over. 
Mahony is ordered to leave a portion of his 
men to defend the ground already rescued, 
and to make his way through the town to the 
Mantua gate, where the fight rages fiercest. 
The enemy's infantry opposes his march, 
but he drives them before him from street to 
street with little difficulty, but with consid- 
erable loss. At length, however, he meets a 
foeman worthy of his steel. A regiment of 
Imperial Cuirassiers led by Baron Freiberg 
dashes into his ranks, and a terrific com- 
bat between the unequally matched forces 
ensues. The numbers are on the side of his 
opponents, and his naked infantry have to 
oppose the steel-clad horsemen, then ac- 
counted the finest in Europe. The bold 
dash of the cavalry is met by the steady 
and well-directed fire of the Irish, again 
they rush in, and the fight becomes a gen- 
eral melee ; the gleaming sabre is met by the 
bayonet, and horse and rider fall together. 
Many a saddle is emptied by the well- 
directed bullet, and when the quarters are 
too close for this, those gallant exiles spring 



UNDRESS UNIFORM. 87 

on the animals and pull the riders to the 
ground. O'Mahony places his hand on 
Freiberg's biidle-rein, and tells him to ask 
for quarter ; the German replies " no quar- 
ter to-day," and is instantly shot down by 
a private soldier. 

Stunned but undismayed by the fall of 
their leader, the Cuirassiers attempt to rally 
for a last grand eifort, but it is in vain ; they 
only rush on the guns of the Irish to find 
instant death ; and broken, decimated, and 
defeated, the small remnant left of the once 
splendid regiment wheels round and re- 
treats with much more haste than they had 
advanced. Cremona is saved. Eugene 
retreats from the town. France is jubilant, 
and all Europe stands astonished at his 
defeat by so small a force of expatriated 
Irish soldiers. Louis XIV, as well he 
might, compliments the two regiments on 
their heroism, doubles the pay of the 
enlisted men, and promotes and rewards the 
officers. 

The losses in this sharp and bloody affray 
were : in Burke's regiment, one officer and 



88 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

fifty-three privates killed, and thirteen 
officers and seventy-eight privates wounded; 
in Dillon's (Major O'Mahony), six officers 
and thirty-seven privates killed, and twenty- 
nine officers and sixty-six privates wounded; 
in prisoners, sixty-seven. 

The desperate bravery of the Irish was 
never better illustrated than on this occasion ; 
and as for their coolness under fire, there 
can be no second opinion, when we reflect 
that it happened in the depth of winter, and 
that their wardrobe was of the simplest and 
most primitive description. But lest we 
might be accused of too much national 
partiality, we will quote a short passage 
from Monsieur Voltaire, who, with the in- 
stinct of an atheist, and the vanity of the 
worse class of the Grauls, never had a good 
word for a Catholic, particularly if he hailed 
from the Island of Saints, when he could 
possibly avoid it. That sceptic, in his 
account of the surprise, says : — 

^^ Officers and soldiers, pell-mell, some 
half armed, others almost naked, without 
direction, without order, fill the streets and 



UNDRESS UNIFORM. 89 

public places. They fight in confusion, 
intrench themselves from street to street, 
from place to place. Two Irish regiments, 
which made part of the garrison, arrest the 
advance of the Impenalists. Never town 
teas siiriwised tvith more skill or defended with 
so much valor. The gamson consisted of 
about -Q^ye thousand men : Prince Eugene 
had not yet brought in more than four 
thousand.* A large detachment of his army 
was to arrive by the Po bridge ; the measures 
were well taken, but another chance de- 
ranged all. The bridge over the Po, insuf- 
ficiently guarded by about a hundred French 
[Irish] soldiers, was to have been seized by 
a body of German Cuirassiers, who, at the 
moment Prince Eugene was entering the 
town, were commanded to go and take 
possession of it. For this purpose, it was 
necessary that, having entered by the 
southern gate, they should instantl}^ go 
outside the city in a northeni direction by 

* Voltaire's figures as to the strength of the garrison are neai'ly 
correct, but the force under Eugene is sadly underrated. The 
best historians place his troops within the walls at about eight 
thousand, independent of those under Count Merci. 



90 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

tlie Po gate, and then hasten to the bridge. 
But, in going thither, the guide that led 
them was killed by a musket-ball fired from 
a window. The Cuirassiers take one street 
for another. In this short interval, the 
Irish spring forward to the gate of the Po ; 
they fight and repulse the Cuirassiers. The 
Marquis de Praslin profits by the movement 
to cut down the bridge. The succor which 
the enemy counted on did not arrive, and 
the town is saved." 

This description by the Franco-Swiss 
historian, it must be remarked, is far from 
covering the whole day's transactions, and 
is very incorrect, both as to the enemy's 
designs on the Po gate, and the method by 
which they were attempted to be carried 
out. It is inserted here mainly to show 
that the brilliant valor of our countrymen 
on that memorable occasion was so con- 
spicuous, as to extort recognition even from 
their bitterest opponents. 

Major O'Mahony, who so gallantly 
demeaned himself on this occasion, was, 
says the Abb^ de Fairac, *^ appointed to 



UNDRESS UNIFORM. 91 

cany to liis most Cliristian Majesty an 
account of that memorable transaction, and 
performed that commission so much to his 
majesty's satisfaction that he granted him 
a brevet for colonel and gave him a pension 
of one thousand livres, besides one thousand 
louis-d'ors to defray the expenses of his 
journey to the court." The same impartial 
authority adds, in relation to this victory: 
^* It must be said to the honor of the Irish, 
that this day was appointed by Providence 
to signalize their fidelity and undaunted- 
ness. The two regiments of that nation, 
which were in garrison at Cremona, made 
a most terrible fire on those who offered to 
approach near the post they had taken ; and 
what is most singular in it is, that the 
officer who had taken the Marshal de Ville- 
roy, going to them from Prince Eugene, 
to persuade them to surrender, they 
secured him ; and so exasperated the prince 
that he sent Baron Frieberg, at the head of 
a great body of Cuirassiers, witii orders to 
put them all to the sword, if tliey did not im- 
mediately surrender. That officer, having 



92 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

beheld many of his men killed about him, 
resolved rather to lose his own life in a 
fresh attack than to yield himself up to the 
Irish. His death daunted the Cuirassiers, 
who instantly turned their backs and fled ; 
and their defeat snatched the victory out of 
the hands of the Imperialists." * 

**" History of ihe Revolutions in Spain." Translated. 
London: 1724. 



CAPTAIN JAMES CANTILLON. 93 



CAPTAIN JAMES CANTILLON. 

BATTLE OF MALPLAQUET. 

The late Mr. John O'Connell, eldest son 
of Ireland's greatest agitator, many years 
ago employed a portion of his time in col- 
lecting materials for a history of the Irish 
brigades in foreign service, and in the course 
of his researches and inquiries he received 
from Le Baron Cantillon de Ballyheagen, 
Lieutenant-Colonel of the 3d Hussars and 
President of the Council of War in Paris 
in 1843, the following interesting communi- 
cation : — 

'* A celebrated painter has reproduced in 
a picture, which is at present my property, 
an historical subject concerning my family 
and yours. It treats of my great grand- 
father, who was likewise the uncle of Mary 
O'Connell, the wife of Maurice, your gi-and- 
uncle. The subject is drawn from the ar- 



94 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

cliives of the Minister of War at Paris. This 
picture represents Captain James Cantillon 
at the battle of Malplaquet, in 1709, charg- 
ing at the head of the grenadiers of the 
Irish regiment of Dorrington, the Enghsh 
troops commanded by the Duke of Marl- 
borough. The official documents explain the 
subject of it in this manner:— When the 
left of the French army, taken in flank by 
the right wing of the enemy's army, under 
the orders of the Duke of Marlborough, 
began to recoil, the Mar^chal de Villars 
brought up as quickly as possible the Irish 
brigade, which was in the centre. It attack- 
ed with fury the English troops, whom it 
repulsed. Cantillon, at the head of the 
grenadiers of the regiment of Dorrington, 
first approached the enemy's line, ex- 
claiming to his men, ^ Forward, hrave 
Irishmen! Long live King James III and 
the King of France ! ' He had his sword 
broken in the combat, and fell covered 
with wounds in the midst of the ranks of 
the English infantry, after having killed 
with his own hand an officer and several 



CAPTAIN JAMES CANTILLON. 95 

soldiers. There remained after the charge 
only fifteen men of the company of 
Cantillon; the others were stretched dead 
or wounded around their brave captain, 
whose glorious example they had followed. 
The painter has represented Cantillon, 
sword in hand, pointing out the enemy^s 
troops to the Irish, and holding up his hat 
in his left hand, while exclaiming, ^ For- 
ward, brave Irishmen,' &c." 



96 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT PETER 
LACY. 

HIS CAMPAIGNS AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF 
THE RUSSIAN FORCES. 

The three most distinguislied officers of 
the L4sh brigades in France, and those who 
rose to supreme command and acquired a 
universal reputation, were the Duke of 
Berwick, and Counts Lally Tollendal and 
de Lacey or Lacy. The fii'st was the cele- 
brated James Fitz-James, an illegitimate 
son of James II by Arabella Churchill, 
sister to the Duke of Marlborough, who, 
notwithstanding the bar sinister on his 
escutcheon, was a man of excellent character 
and pure morals ; the bearer of many titles 
and lordships, conferred for most valuable 
services in the field and cabinet, and the 
victor in many a hard- fought battle in 
France, Spain, and the Netherlands. 



COUNT PETER LACY. 97 

Tliomas Arthur Lally Tollendal, who 
entered the service early in boyhood, of all 
the officers of Irish lineage who distin- 
guished themselves on the eventful day 
of Fontenoy, was decidedly the most re- 
markable, whether we consider him as a 
soldier and a statesman, follow up his most 
eventful career, or sigh over his ill- 
deserved and most tragic deatli. Lally Avas 
tlie son of Sir Gerald Lally, or O'MuUally, 
of Tollendal, near the town of Tuam,"^ one of 
the original colonels of King James's army, 
and was born in Dauphine, France, in 
i702, his mother being Maria Anne do 
Bressac, the daughter of a noble family of 
that province. At a very early age, he 
acquired a strong taste for military life, and 
developed a wonderful aptitude for master- 
ing the most difficult studies of his future 
profession. While yet a child, he was 
frequently brought into the trenches by his 
father, a circumstance so far from dis- 
couraging the youth, that it increased his 
admiration for the life of a soldier. At the 

* In Irish, Tulugh-na-dala. 
7 



98 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

age of twenty-six he was commissioned 
captain in Dillon^s regiment, and promoted 
aid-major foui* years afterwards. 

In the year 1732, he travelled through 
England, Ireland, and Scotland, with a \dew 
to ascertain the real strength of the Jacobin 
party in those countries, and returned full 
of zeal for the Stuarts' cause, and plans for 
a descent on the Irish or Scotch coast. In 
1738 he was entrusted with an important and 
delicate mission to Russia by Cardinal de 
Fleury, and, though not fully successful on 
account of influences beyond his control, he 
received great praise at the French court, 
and deposited in the national archives two 
very valuable reports, one on the statistics of 
Eussia, and the other on her gigantic designs 
and ' probable development. On the re- 
sumption of hostilities, we find him full 
major of Dillon's regiment and aid-major 
to the Due de Noailles, a position which 
gave him control of the organization of the 
troops under that distinguished nobleman. 
He was present at Fontenoy with his regi- 
ment, and by his suggestions previous to 



COUNT PETER LACY. 99 

the battle, and liis bravery during the 
hottest part of it, contributed so materially 
to the defeat of the allies, that he was pro- 
moted brigadier-general on the field by 
Louis XV in person. 

A most enthusiastic adherent of the 
Stuarts, he devoted all his remarkable 
powers of organization and diplomacy to 
originate and perfect the expedition to 
Scotland in 1745, in which so many of his 
brother-officers of the brigade were engaged, 
and which failed mainly because his instruc- 
tions were not properly carried out. For 
his services in the royal cause he was 
created, by Prince Charles, Earl of 
Moenmoye, Viscount of Ballymote, and 
Baron of Tollendal. As quartermaster- 
general to Comte de Lowendhall, in 1747, 
he signalized himself at the defence of 
Antwerp, and in the battle of Laffeldt, at 
which latter place he was severely wounded. 

In 1756, at the special request and 
urgent entreaty of tlie Frencli East India 
Company, he was appointed by the king 
commander-in-chief of the French forces in 



100 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

the East, and sailed the following May from 
Brest with a force of about two thousand 
men, including his own Irish regiment, two 
men-of-war, and two millions in money, 
having previously been created lieutenant- 
general, commissioner for the king, syndic 
of the company, commander of the Order 
of St. Louis, and grand cross of that order. 
He landed with his force at Pondicherry, 
the company's principal stronghold on the 
Coromandel coast, in 1758, only to find its 
affairs in a hopeless state of bankruptcy, 
its officials lazy, ignorant, and utterly cor- 
rupt, its little army mutinous and demor- 
alized, its scanty navy insubordinate, and, 
to crown all, the native princes, instigated 
and assisted by the English, everywhere 
hostile to French interests. With his usual 
energy and fertility of resources, he at once 
set to work to reform the abuses of the 
colony, and bring to terms by force or 
diplomacy the neighboring chiefs ; but the 
evils had become so chronic, that even his 
great genius could not eradicate them. In 
vain he punished peculation and reproved 



COUNT PETER LACY. 101 

neglect ; in vain lie performed prodigies of 
valor with his little army against Indians 
and English : he could not save a selfish and 
corrupt corporation foredoomed to destruc- 
tion, and, in less than five years after his 
arrival, Pondicherry and its surroundings 
were in the hands of the British. Lally 
himself surrendered as a prisoner of war at 
the capture of Pondicherry, after having 
defended the place for several months with 
the tenacity and skill of a thorough soldier. 
He was sent to England, and thence to 
France, where new troubles awaited him. 
His severe and thoroughly honest admin- 
istration in India had raised up against him 
a host of enemies among the company's 
officials and their friends at home, the most 
powerful of whom was the Due de Choiseul, 
Minister of War and of Foreign Afiairs. 
Thi'ough the intrigues of that unscrupulous 
minister, he was aiTCsted, imprisoned, and 
tried on a series of absurd charges, including 
that of treason, and, having been found 
guilty after a mock trial, was beheaded on 
the 9th of May, 1766 — twenty-one years 



102 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

after the battle of Fontenoy — ^in the sixty- 
fifth year of his age. This glaring act of 
injustice horrified both French and English, 
in fact, people of all nations, who had long 
admired him as a gallant soldier, a subtle 
and comprehensive statesman, and a gentle- 
man of varied accomplishments and of the 
highest honor. 

With the death of Lally, the Irish brigade 
gradually declined in numbers and im- 
portance, until eventually swallowed up in 
the chaos of the French Revolution. 

But when we consider the magnitude of 
his commands, the unvarying success which 
attended his campaigns, the raw material 
he had to discipline and fight, and the 
absence of all family or national influence 
to aid his steps to promotion and fame, the 
greatest of those three illustrious captains 
was Peter Lacy, born at Killeedy, in the 
county of Limerick, October 9th, 1678. 
Like Lally, he entered the army when very 
young, for we find him in his fourteenth 
year an ensign in the Prince of Wales's 
Irish regiment at the siege of Limerick. 



COUNT PETER LACY. 103 

After tlie suiTender of that city he proceed- 
ed with his uncle, General John Lacy, 
to France, and entered the regiment of 
Athlone as lieutenant, in which capacity 
he served in Italy and on the Ehine, until, 
upon the consolidation of the brigade, 
consequent upon the peace of Ryswick, he 
was mustered out as supernumerary. Con- 
scious, no doubt, of his innate ability, and 
ardent in the pursuit of fame, he proceeded 
to Hungary, then at war with the Turks ; 
but shortly after his arrival the treaty of 
Carlowitz was signed, and he was again 
disappointed. 

Peter the Great at this time requiring 
foreign officers to discipline his troops, Lacy 
became one of a hundred officers who 
volunteered for the service, and set out for 
Narva, where, upon his arrival, he was 
appointed captain in Bruce's regiment of 
infantry, in 1700. Here his brilliant career 
begins. Russia and Sweden were then at 
deadly feud, and Lacy's time was fully oc- 
cupied fighting in the summer and organiz- 
ing liis command while in winter quarters. 



104 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

His promotion was commensurate with Ms 
services. In 1703, he got a company of 
one hundred of the Russian nohlessej called 
the Grand Musketeers; in 1705, he was a 
major, and the next year a lieutenant- 
colonel and instructor of three regiments ; 
early in 1708, he became colonel, and in 
the following December, at the head of 
three battalions of infantry, a company of 
grenadiers, a regiment of dragoons, and 
five hundred Cossacks, he attacked and 
captured Rumna, the headquarters of the 
army of Charles XII. For this exploit he 
was given the command of a regiment of 
grenadiers. 

At the decisive battle of Pultowa, fought 
in the summer of 1709, he acted as briga- 
dier under Bauer, and, though wounded, 
contributed materially, by his bravery and 
counsel, to the success of that day, which 
for ever broke the power of Sweden. "It 
was," says Ferrar, " Marshal Lacy who 
taught the Russians to beat the King of 
Sweden's army, and, from being the worst, 
to become some of the best soldiers in 



COUNT PETER LACY. 105 

Europe. The Russians had been used to 
fight in a very confused manner, and to 
discharge their musketry before they ad- 
vanced sufficiently near the enemy to do 
execution. Before the famous battle of 
Pultowa in 1709, Marshal Lacy advised the 
Czar to send orders that every man should 
reserve his fire until he came within a few 
yards of the enemy. The consequence was 
that Charles XII was totally defeated, and 
in one action lost the advantage of nine 
glorious campaigns." 

From this time till 1721, Lacy was active- 
ly engaged against the Turks and Swedes, 
becoming in succession brigadier and major- 
general in 1712, and lieutenant-general in 
1720. With this latter rank, in the follow- 
ing year he made a descent on the Swedish 
coast, forced that government into the peace 
of Nystadt, and added to the Russian em- 
pire Livonia, Estlionia, Ingria, Corelia, and 
a number of Baltic islands. In 1723, he 
was in St. Petersburg a member of the 
College of War ; and at the ceremonies in- 
cident to the coronation of Catharine I, he 



106 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

held the place of honor beside the empress's 
carriage ; meanwhile being decorated with 
the insignia of the order of St. Alexander 
Newsky, promoted to be commander-in-chief 
of infantry, and assigned the command of all 
the forces around St. Petersburg and some of 
the provinces formerly wrested from Swe- 
den. All this was accomplished before he 
had reached his forty-seventh year, and in 
a land which he had entered, twenty-five 
years previously, a stranger, unfriended 
and unknown, with nothing but his bright 
sword and keener wit by which to carve 
his way to fortune. 

But greater honors were yet in store for 
him. In 1727, the illustrious Captain 
Maurice, Count de Saxe, who afterwards 
commanded as Marshal at Fontenoy, was 
elected Duke of Courtland. So famous 
a soldier, and a French one at that, was 
a dangerous neighbor for St. Petersburg; 
and Lacy was selected to expel him 
from the duchy, which he did with very 
little ceremony. In 1733, at the head of 
thirty thousand men, he marched into 



COUNT PETER LACY. 107 

Poland, and went through the same sum- 
mary process for Stanislaus, who had 
been nominated king by a part of the 
Poles, and placed Augustus of Saxony on 
the throne. He took Warsaw and Dant- 
zic, and fought several successful battles 
during the campaign of the next year, and 
received from Augustus as a token of ap- 
preciation a portrait of himself, set in 
diamonds, valued at twenty-five thousand 
crowns, and was dubbed knight of the 
White Eagle of Poland. In 1735, he ter- 
minated the civil war in that distracted 
country by the battle of Busawitza, where, 
with only fifteen hundred di-agoons, eighty 
hussars, and five hundred Cossacks, he com- 
pletely routed twenty thousand Stanislaites 
commanded by the palatine of Lublin. 

France and Austria being then at war, he 
was ordered to reinforce the army of 
Prince Eugene with some ten thousand 
infantry ; but shortly after reaching Man- 
heim, the place of rendezvous, peace was 
declared between the belligerents. His 
army accordingly wintered in Bavai'ia, and 



108 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

he himself took occasion to visit Vienna. 
His own account of the results of this trip 
he notes in his journal, in the following few 
simple words : ''I arrived there the 5th of 
February. On the 6th, I had a private 
interview of the Emperor and Empress, 
both of whom received me in a very gra- 
cious manner. On the 7th, I was also 
admitted to an audience of the Empress- 
Dowager Amelia; the 8th, with the Duke of 
Lorraine and the rest of the imperial family. 
On the 10th I was again admitted to an 
audience of the Emperor and Empress. The 
former deigned to present me with his 
portrait, richly set with diamonds, and also 
^ye thousand ducats in money. On the 
11th I quitted Vienna ; on the road I met a 
courier from St. Petersburg, who brought 
me the patent of field-marshal." 

With the patent were orders for him to 
put himself at the head of his command 
and reduce the fortress of Azof, Russia 
and Turkey being again at war. He sat 
down before it in May, and in July it capitu- 
lated with its garrison of three thousand 



COUNT PETER LACY. 109 

five hundred men, between two and three 
hundi'ed pieces of artillery, and a large 
quantity of ammunition and equipments. 
Munich's army having lost largely in the 
Crimea, the residue was added to the 
command of Lacy, and he went into winter 
quarters at Karkow, to be ready for the 
opening of spring to make farther advances 
on the enemy. 

Accordingly, in 1737, we find him in 
command of forty thousand men, supported 
in the sea of Azof by the fleet of Rear- 
Admiral Bredal, with instructions to invade 
the Crimea and subdue the Tartars. The 
Khan disputed his entry into that now 
peculiarly historical country, with a much 
superior force, and held the boundary line, 
that of Precop, a strong natural defence, 
in full confidence of being able to resist 
the invasion. Lacy, however, drove him 
from this position by a dexterous flank 
movement, and the Khan fell back to 
Arabat to endeavor to cover that strong- 
hold. Major- General Baron Manstein, an 
officer who served under the Irish marshal 



110 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

for many years, thus relates in his memoirs 
the subsequent proceedings : — 

^^As soon as he heard that the Khan 
was arrived at Arabat, and that he was there 
waiting for him, he caused the depth of 
that arm of the sea, which separates this 
spot of land from the Crimea, to be 
sounded, and, having found a place for his 
purpose, he had rafts made, for the con- 
struction of which all the empty casks of 
the army and main timber-pieces of the 
chevaux-de-frise were employed; and by 
this means crossed this arm of sea, with the 
infantry and equipages. The dragoons, 
Cossacks or Calmucks, swam or forded it 
over. It had not been the Khan alone 
who had judged this a rash enterprise of 
the Marshal Lacy, when he marched on the 
spit of land towards Arabat, for the 
generals of his own army were of the same 
opinion. All of them except Spiegel 
waited on him one morning and represented 
to him that he was exposing the troops, and 
that they were all running the risk of perish- 
ing together. The marshal answered them 



COUNT PETER LACY. . Ill 

that danger there was in all military enter- 
prises, but that he did not see more in this 
one than in many others. However, he 
desired their counsel as to what they thought 
was best to be done. They replied, Ho 
return;' upon which Lacy rejoined that, 
since the generals had a mind to return, he 
would despatch them their passports for it ; 
and actually called for his secretary, whom 
he ordered to make them out, and immedi- 
ately to deliver them to them. He even 
commanded a party of two hundred 
dragoons to escort them to the Ukraine, 
there to await his return. It was tlu'ce 
days before the generals could prevail on 
the marshal to relent and forgive them the 
presumption they had shown in proposing 
to him to retreat. The Khan, who im- 
agined that he should beat the Russian 
army at the outlet near Arabat, was 
supremely surprised at learning that it had 
crossed the arm of the sea and was now in 
full march towards him. But he did not 
think fit to wait for it. He retreated 
towards the mountains, harassed by the 



112 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Cossacks and Calmucks close at his 
heels." 

After some sharp engagements between 
the advanced guards of the Kussians and 
the enemy, Karas-Bazar, one of the most 
important towns in the Crimea, was taken 
on July 25th, and, having been found de- 
serted by the inhabitants, was burned to 
the ground. It contained about ten thou- 
sand houses, fifty water-mills, thirty-eight 
mosques, and two Grreek churches. The 
day following, a battle took place between 
Lacy's command and the Tartars near the 
river Karas, which, though doubtful for a 
while, finally resulted in the complete defeat 
of the latter, with great loss in killed, wound- 
ed, and prisoners. Having fulfilled his mis- 
sion, and destroyed more than one thousand 
fortified towns and open villages, the mar- 
shal took up a retrograde march, crossed 
the Russian frontier, and established his 
winter quarters along the Don and Donetz. 

On the 6th of July, 1738, Lacy was 
with his army, some thirty-five or forty 
thousand strong, in sight of Precop. " The 



COUNT PETER LACY. 113 

Khan, with forty thousand of his troops, 
was behind the line where he hoped to 
render the entrance into the Crimea more 
difficult than it had been the preceding 
years. He had great confidence in the new 
lines, which the year before the Tartars had 
made before the Palus Mseotis. But Lacy 
disconcerted his project, and entered with- 
out the loss of a single man. For, in sum- 
mer, the heats dry up a part of the Sea of 
Azof, and a west wind keeps back the 
flood, so that one may get into the Crimea 
almost dryshod. As good luck would have 
.it, this wind began to blow, and the mar- 
shal lost not a moment in taking the bene- 
fit of it. He instantly drew up his army 
along the shore in a single line, and 
happily crossed the sea before the return 
of the flood. Some, indeed, of the carriages 
of the rear-guard, that could not come up 
quick enough, were lost by the wind hav- 
ing ceased to blow and the sea returning 
just as the army had passed. They seized 
upon a small fort called Czivas-Coula. On 
the 8th, the marshal marched towards Pre- 

8 



114 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

cop and sat down before it. The siege did 
not last but till the 12th. The continual iii'e 
kept up against the place, and the quantity 
of shells thrown into it, took great eifect, and 
obliged the Turkish commandant to capitu- 
late." In the town were found about one hun- 
dred brass cannon. The garrison, amounting 
to two thousand Janizaries, suri'endered at 
discretion. Some days after, a sharp en- 
gagement took place between the Cossacks 
and dragoons and twenty thousand Tartar 
cavalry. The fight, thougli short, was des- 
perate, and the enemy were defeated with the 
loss of over a thousand killed. Lacy then, 
— after razing the works around Precop, and 
finding it useless to advance farther into 
the interior, which from repeated incursions 
had become an uninhabited Tyilderness, — 
retired for the winter to the Ukraine. 

This was his last active operation against 
the infidels, for he was recalled to St. Peters- 
burg soon after and entrusted with a much 
more important duty. In 1741, war having 
been declared between Russia and Sweden, 
the marshal was sent with an army into 



COUNT PETER LACY. 115 

Swedish Finland early in September, and, 
with his usual rapidity, had in two days 
defeated the enemy under Wrangel in a de- 
cisive battle near William strand, and storm- 
ed and taken that town with its guns, stores, 
and the remnant of the Swedish forces. 
Being late in the season, he recrossed the 
frontier and encamped along it for the win- 
ter. The news of this first successful blow 
of the war caused great rejoicing at the 
capital ; and when Lacy, leaving his army in 
charge of his next in rank, visited the court, 
he was received with marked distinction. 
About this time, an incident occuiTcd in the 
life of the marshal, which, but for his ready 
wit, smacking somewhat of his race and 
nation, might have been attended with 
very serious consequences. It is thus told 
by Baron Man stein: — "In December the 
revolution took place at St. Petersburg by 
which the Princess Elizabeth, the youngest 
daughter of Peter the Great, was made 
empress. Of the several secret arrange- 
ments for effecting this change in the 
government, it not having been thought 



116 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

advisable to consult Marshal Lacy, who 
never interfered with the intrigues of the 
court, he was applied to at three o'clock in 
the morning to say of what party he was, — 
that of the Grand-Duchess Anne, or the 
Princess Elizabeth? Although suddenly 
awakened out of sleep, perceiving that there 
was in fact an empress who had the reins, 
but not being equally satisfied if it were the 
grand-duchess or the princess who had suc- 
ceeded, he replied: ^ Of the party of the 
reigning empress.' At this answer, which 
discovered a quickness of conception and a 
great presence of mind, address, and judg- 
ment, he was conducted to court, that he 
might continue to enjoy his rank and offices, 
and even receive fresh marks of gratitude 
from the new empress." 

In 1742, on Easter- Sunday, a sort of 
Know-Nothing riot took place in St. Peters- 
burg, which at one time threatened the 
most serious results. The foreign officers, 
even of the highest rank, were insulted and 
outraged in the public streets ; the appear- 
ance of a stranger was the signal for an 



COUNT PETER LACY. 117 

assault ; and, as many of the army in and 
around the city had joined the rioters, it 
was feared that it would be given over to 
plunder and destruction, if not speedily 
quieted. Lacy was called upon to execute 
this dangerous task, and he did so with his 
usual promptness and method; and thus, 
says a cotemporary writer, ^' saved St. 
Petersburg and, perhaps, the whole empire. 
Most certain it is, that, if it had not been for 
the good arrangements made by Marshal 
Lacy, the disorders would have multiplied 
and gone greater lengths." 

This outbreak having been effectually re- 
pressed, Lacy in summer again invaded 
Swedish Finland with an army of twenty- 
five thousand men on land, and ten thousand 
on board the fleet which was to support him. 
He set out in June, and drove the enemy 
before him to the gates of Fredericksham, 
which they abandoned without firing a 
shot, but after destroying the greater portion 
of the town and tlie magazines, leaving, 
however, behind them in their haste one 
hundred and thirty pieces of artillery. On 



118 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

the tenth of July, the festival of St. Peter, 
the Te Deum was sung in the cathedral of 
St. Petersburg and all the principal cities 
of the empire, ^4n thanksgiving that the 
Russian army had taken Fredericksham, 
the only fortified town in all Swedish Fin- 
land, without losing a single man." The 
marshal remained two days near the deso- 
lated town, and then marched his army to 
the river Kymen, on the opposite side of 
which he beheld the whole Swedish army 
drawn up, with their guns in position, pre- 
pared to dispute his passage. A courier, 
too, had arrived from St. Petersburg with 
orders to Lacy not to pass the river, but to 
end the campaign by making it a fortified 
barrier against the enemy. The marshal, 
however, regarding neither friend nor foe, 
after advising with his principal subordi- 
nates, boldly crossed the Kymen, the Swedes 
retiring through Perinokirk, Borgo, and 
Helsingkirk on Helsingfort. Though these 
were all strong positions, the dexterity with 
which the Russian army was manoeuvred 
kept the Swedes in constant dread of being 



COUNT PETER LACY. 119 

outflanked and cut off from their base of 
supplies; and even at Helsingfort, the 
strongest of all, they did not feel safe, and 
were preparing to retreat to Abow, when 
Lacy, obtaining information of the move- 
ment, resolved by a counter move to defeat 
it, by passing his army through an inter- 
vening forest and taking possession of the 
high-road leading to Abow. '' By four in 
the morning," says Manstein, " the whole 
army was under march and joined Lowen- 
dahl by six. Scarce was the junction made, 
when they saw the van of the Swedish 
army. The Swedes, terribly sm-prised at 
discovering the Russians in a part where 
they had by no means expected them, 
returned as fast as possible into their camp 
of Helsingfort, which they continued to 
fortify, and strengthened with a number of 
pieces of cannon." 

They were, however, no match for tlie 
Russians led by such a soldier as Lacy; and 
in fifteen days they surrendered at discre- 
tion. ^' When the Swedish army capitu- 
lated it was near seventeen thousand strong. 



120 IKISH SOLDIERS. 

and all the E-ussian forces that Lacy had 
at that time under his command did not 
outnumber the enemy by five hundred. 
The garrisons of Fredericksham and Borgo, 
the various detachments that they had been 
obliged to make, and sickness, had reduced 
the Russian army to one-half; so that there 
were two-to-one odds that, if the Swedes 
had not submitted to those ignominious 
conditions and the marshal had attacked 
them, the Russians would have been beaten, 
taking into consideration the position of 
their camp, which they had had full time to 
fortify."* One of the fruits of this glorious 
victory was the acquisition of all Finland 
by Russia; and with it, practically and 
fitly, ends the military career of the great 
marshal, for the operations of the follow- 
ing year, though commenced on a grand 
scale and with great pomp, were not sig- 
nalized by any engagement of moment. 

On the 14th of May, 1743, the land 
forces and stores having been put aboard 
the galleys at St. Petersburg about to join 

* Manstein. 



COUNT PETER LACY. 121 

tlie fleet at Cronstadt, ^Hlie empress went on 
board Marshal Lacy's galley, where she 
assisted at divine service, according to the 
Greek ritual ; after which she made him a 
present of a ring of great value, and of a 
small golden cross, enclosing some relics ; 
and embracing him, wished him a happy 
campaign. She then went to her palace, 
from the windows of which she saw the 
galleys move off in a line, giving her a 
royal salute as they passed." Her majesty, 
who seems to have taken the deepest 
interest in Lacy's movements, as she had the 
gi'catest confidence in his skill and judg- 
ment, also visited him at Cronstadt to bid 
him a parting farewell. However, the fleet 
of Admiral Gollowin, when ready to sail, was 
delayed for several days by foul weather ; 
and when it did put out and came in view of 
the fleet of the enemy, that strict construc- 
tionist refused to engage it, alleging that, 
by an antiquated order of Peter the Great, 
he could not give battle except the odds of 
three to two were in his favor ; and as the 
enemy's ships numbered twelve and he had 



122 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

only seventeen, he allowed them to escape 
unmolested ! Lacy, disgusted and impatient 
at such imbecility, was preparing to land 
his forces on the Swedish coast when peace, 
on terms most advantageous to Russia, 
was proclaimed. As a mark of gratitude 
to the marshal for his eminent services in 
bringing about this great national triumph, 
the empress sent her own yacht to bring 
him back, so that he might participate in 
the general rejoicings and festivities with 
which the event was celebrated. Lacy soon 
retired to his estates in Livonia, where in 
his seventy-third year he died, having spent 
two-thirds of a long and eventful life in 
the service of his adopted country. 

Some of the minor details of this short 
sketch of Field-Marshal Lacy we take from 
his own journal; but the authorities most 
relied on, particularly when an estimate of 
his character is formed, or a just tribute is 
paid to his great energy of character and 
profound knowledge of his profession, are 
General Baron Manstein's and the Prince 
de Ligue's military memoirs. But while 



COUNT PETER LACY. 12 



o 



we cannot but aduiire the genius displayed 
by Lacy, and liis uninterrupted success in 
aggrandizing Russia, what must we think 
of the laws and the government that 
deprived his native country of the benefit 
of his transcendent abilities ! The field- 
marshal, count, and commander-in-chief — 
the intimate of emperors and kings — in his 
own land, where his ancestors had lived 
from time immemorial, could not have held 
an ensign's commission ! The repression 
of Irish intellect by the penal laws of 
England up to 1829, and since almost as 
effectually by national and religious pre- 
judice, is one of the great evils resulting 
from the loss of Ireland's national indepen- 
dence ; and it will be only when she regains 
that of which she is so unjustly deprived, 
that the world will be able to witness what 
a perennial spring of genius lies latent in 
the people of that gallant and unconquer- 
able nation. 



124 lEISH SOLDIEKS. 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL DANIEL 
O'MAHONY. 

THE WARS OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 

The conflict for the throne of Spain 
between Charles, Archduke of Austria, and 
Phihp V, the legitimate monarch, lasted from 
the beginning of the eighteenth century till 
A. D. 1714. The archduke's pretensions were 
sustained by the Germans, Dutch, English, 
Portuguese, and a portion of the rebellious 
Spaniards, particularly those of Catalonia; 
while Philip had only the aid of his loyal 
subjects, of France, and a portion of the 
invincible Irish brigade. Philip's com- 
mander-in-chief dming the greater part of 
the war was Marshal Vendome, and his 
opponent's troops were directed by the cele- 
brated Prince Eugene. On both sides were 
many distinguished generals. Strange to 
say, the French contingent was commanded 



DANIEL o'mAHONY. 125 

by an Englishman, the Duke of Berwick, 
natural son of James II, and the English, 
Dutch, and Portuguese by a Frenchman, 
Henri de Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, 
created, by William III, Earl of Galway. 
The Irish ti'oops which had been transferred 
h^ Louis XIV to the service of the King of 
Spain were under the immediate command 
of O'Mahony, the same who so distinguished 
himself at the surprise of Cremona, and 
w^ho, after being breveted colonel by Louis, 
ennobled by James, and appointed governor 
of Brescello, in Italy, entered Spain in 1704 
with the rank of brigadier-general. 

With his usual activity, he went at once 
to work, and at the affair of Monsanto he 
not only saved the Spanish army in its re- 
treat, but inflicted severe loss on the enemy, 
thus giving them a foretaste of what might 
be expected from the new element that had 
entered into King Philip's army. On that 
occasion ^'the Sieur IfaJioni,^^ as his con- 
temporary French biographer calls him, 
*' commanded on the right, when, towards 
evening, twenty Portuguese squadrons were 



12 G IRISH SOLDIERS. 

seen, that, after remaining some time drawn 
up for action, opened to make room in the 
centre for their infantry, apparently amount- 
ing to sixteen battahons. They advanced 
with much confidence, as calculating, from 
the superiority of their numbers, on sur- 
rounding the Spanish troops and cutting 
them in pieces; they even took in flank and 
rear the dragoons and the regiments of the 
Queen of Milan and of Orders, which the 
Sieur de Mahoni, the Irish brigadier, com- 
manded. But he received them with so 
much firmness and repulsed them with so 
much vigor, that he stopped them until he 
gained time for the rest of his troops to 
reach the defile on their left. When this 
was passed, he caused the regiment of the 
queen (Irish) to turn upon them and charge 
them so effectively that one of their regi- 
ments of dragoons, in a yellow uniform, 
which had likewise passed, was driven back 
again in confusion, leaving two hundred 
dead upon the place. This brought the 
enemy to a halt, till they could be joined by 
their infantry and artillery. Then the 



DANIEL O^MAHONY. 127 

Spanish troops retired in good order behind 
a ravine, the Sieur Mahoni repeatedly fac- 
ing the enemy with his rear-guard and 
arresting their progress with the almost un- 
ceasing fire he kept up. Thus this retreat 
was accomplished without any greater loss 
than about fifty men, in the presence of a 
force tlu'ee times more numerous." 

In the Franco- Spanish campaign of 
1705, we find at one time part of the 
garrison of Cadiz composed of the regiment 
^' de Mahoni Irlandois," and again the 
ubiquitous chief, or, as an English historian 
styles him, ^^ the famous Colonel Mahoni, 
who distinguished himself in so extraor- 
dinary a manner in driving the Germans 
out of Cremona," driving the adherents of 
the archduke out of Arragon. It may be 
here remarked that, though the French, 
Spanish, and even British writers have taken 
a great many liberties with the names of 
distinguished Irish soldiers who served on 
the continent of Europe during the last 
century, and tried as much as possible to 
bend them to conformity with the idiomatic 



128 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

sound of their respective languages, they 
were unanimous in according to those 
possessors of old Graelic names the highest 
praise for fidelity to the causes which 
they espou-sed, for daring in their sup- 
port, and irrepressible gallantry in their 
defence. 

O'Mahony seems to have possessed not 
only military genius of a very high order, 
but wonderful decision of character and 
mental activity; and the war of succession, 
as it is called, gave him ample opportunities 
to develope and exercise those quahties. 
He was, in fact, constantly employed in 
active operations, and, like his countryman 
and contemporary. Lacy of Russia, his pro- 
motion and honors kept steady pace with 
his responsibilities. Accordingly, in 1706, 
we find him at the head of an independent 
command with the rank of major-general, 
having also been created by his grateful 
sovereign a Count of Castile. In the follow- 
ing year, he took part in the battle of 
Almanza, and, of course, contributed to that 
splendid victory, which has been justly said 



DANIEL o'mAHONY. 129 

to have secured the throne of S^Dain to the 
Bourbons. 

This important engagement took place on 
Easter Monday, 25th of April, 1707, near 
Almanza, in the province of Neurcia, and in 
decisiveness, and the character of the con- 
tending forces, was the precursor of 
Fontenoy. Though the numbers engaged 
were less, probably about thirty thousand 
on either side, the feelings and motives that 
actuated the combatants were precisely sim- 
ilar. On one side were French and Irish, 
with the addition of some Spaniards; on 
the other Dutch and English, supported by 
Portuguese. Early in the spring, the lat- 
ter, under the command of Lord Galway and 
Das Minas, laid siege to Villena, while Ber- 
wick, who had been joined by O'Mahony, 
after scouring Valentia, was at Almanza. 
By a dexterous stratagem, in which two 
Irishmen of the rank of officers played a con- 
spicuous part, the duke succeeded in drawing 
his adversary from his works, and forced 
him to accept battle on his own terms. 
The fight did not commence till thi^ee 

9 



130 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

in the afternoon, but before nightfall the 
enemy was completely routed, leaving 
more than three thousand dead on the field, 
and four thousand prisoners in the hands 
of the victors, including about eight hun- 
dred commissioned officers. Twenty-four 
cannon and one hundred standards were 
also captured, besides a large quantity of 
military stores. The English officers alone, 
killed, wounded (including Galway), and 
taken in this glorious battle, amounted to 
three hundred and seventy-four. 

The Irish troops engaged in this action 
consisted of one battalion of the regiment 
of Berwick, and four squadrons of O'Ma- 
hony. They formed a portion of the brigade 
of Maine, and the commander-in-chief, with 
a thorough knowledge of their temper and 
prowess, placed them against the English 
portion of the allies. When the final attack 
was made which decided the fortunes of the 
day, this brigade advanced, and when within 
thirty paces received the enemy's fire, but 
did not return it till within a few feet of 
their adversaries ; ^' then," in the words of a 



DANIEL o'mAHONY. 131 

contemporary English, and, of course, no 
friendly authority, ^' they charged them with 
fixed bayonets and threw them into such 
disorder that they gave way, without being 
able to rally, and, as in flying before this 
brigade, those battalions (^ve English) 
were obliged to pass a ravine, a great car- 
nage of them then took place." Count 
O'Mahony greatly distinguished himself on 
this day, and according to the Chevalier de 
Belle vive, ^^ performed, at the head of his 
Irish regiment of dragoons, astonishing 
actions," as did other expatriated officers 
like O'Dwyer, O'CaiToll, O'Heffenan, &c. 

Early in 1708 we find O'Mahony, now 
lieutenant-general, at the head of seven 
thousand troops, including three Irish corps, 
again in Valentia. Alcoy was taken by 
him on the 9th of January, and many other 
fortified places along the coast fell into his 
hands. In March of the same year, he 
sailed for Sicily with a considerable force, 
including his five hundred Irish cav- 
alry, and remained there for nearly two 
years. His well-known efficiency as a, 



132 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

commander, and liis attractive manners as 
a gentleman, are admitted by the writers of 
those times to have been the chief means of 
retaining that island for Philip, when his 
other Italian possessions were overrun or 
lost by the disaffection of their inhabitants. 
In 1710 he was recalled to Spain, and dur- 
ing the summer campaign we find him with 
his usual vigor capturing fortresses, and, 
when enjoying a separate command, invari- 
ably successful. He had charge of the right 
wing of Philip's army at the disastrous 
battle of Saragossa, August 20th; and by his 
desperate and repeated charges on the over- 
whelming numbers of the enemy, not only 
secured the personal safety of that mon- 
arch when the day was lost, but covered 
the retreat of the defeated army. Again, 
in the following December, at a battle 
fought near the same place with better 
success (for Philip's army was this time com- 
manded by Vendome and not De Bay), 
O'Mahony was on the right, and there can 
be no doubt, from the statement of the 
king himself, contributed powerfully to 



DANIEL o'mAHONY. 133 

the victory, at the moment the centre 
and left had given away and were about to 
retreat. *'M. de Yendome," wrote Phihp, 
" seeing that our centre gave ground, and 
that our left of cavalry did not make any 
impression on the right, believed it was 
necessary to think of retiring towards 
Torrija, and gave the order for that pur- 
pose ; but as soon as we were going there 
with a considerable portion of the troops, 
we were informed that the Marquis de Fal- 
de-Canas and Mahoni had charged the 
enemy's infantry with the cavalry which 
they had under their orders, and handled 
it very mightily, which caused us immedi- 
ately to adopt the resolution of marching 
back with the rest of the army." O'Mahony 
followed up his success with his usual 
impetuosity, capturing men and supplies, 
and had not night fallen so opportunely 
for Staremberg, the Austrian commander, 
he would certainly have been captured by 
the intrepid Irishman. As it was, we are 
told that '' the Count Mahoni acquired a 
great deal of glory on the battle-day of 



134 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Villaviciosa, at the head of the dragoons. 
The king was so satisfied with him, that 
he conferred upon him a commandership of 
the order of St. Jacques, producing a rent 
of fifteen thousand hvi*es." 

The following incident, which occurred 
at the battle of Villaviciosa, as related by 
the Chevalier de Bellerive, we transcribe 
from a very valuable work^ recently pub- 
lished in Ireland, as an illustration of the 
spirit that animated our ancestors in those 
days, and the loyalty and devotion which 
they exhibited on all occasions towards the 
country of their adoption : — 

" When the two armies were so near that 
almost every movement of each was per- 
ceptible, M. de Staremberg caused to be 
brought to his right wing a battery com- 
manded by an officer wearing a red 
mantle and mounted upon a white horse, 

* Sistory of the Irish BHgades in the service of France, ^c. 
By John Cornelius (y Callaghan. 1870. This immense compila- 
tion of facts, incidents, and dates, relating to the Irish soldiers in 
European service during the last century, forms a most valuable 
book, and should be read by every Irishman and descendant of 
an Irishman on this continent. 



DANIEL o'mAHONY. 135 

who let fly from the van into the regiment 
of Irish dragoons of my Lord Kilmaloc 
[Lord Kilmallock], which was upon our 
left, and which nearly closed it up. This 
regiment was not long without feeling the 
fire of that battery, the first ball killing a 
horse and then two dragoons. My Lord 
Kilmaloc, its colonel, being struck by a 
cannon-shot, one of his sons caused him 
to be carried to the rear of the regiment. 
The father, fixing his eyes upon him, said : 
' My dear son, let me at least expire within 
your arms, since I have so short a time to 
live.' * Father,' he replied to him, * it is 
necessary for me to go where my duty 
and the service of Philip V summon me.' 
' What ! my dear son, you refuse me that 
consolation, and abandon me at the hour of 
death 1 ' ^ My dear father, I go to avenge 
it, or to find my own with the regiment.' 
The cannon-shot there fell like hail; the 
enemy themselves were surprised to see 
men so firm, so immovable and insensible 
to the terrible discharges of artillery, that 
they knew by that what was the courage 



136 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

and the intrepidity of those brave dragoons. 
* * * Although this regiment had been 
very much weakened during the cannonade 
from the right wing of M. de Staremberg, 
it did not cease to charge the enemy's troops 
with such impetuous ardor that they could 
not resist it. "^ ^ * The lieutenant-colonel 
of this regiment received a musket-shot 
through his body while charging the enemy, 
and the Marquis d' Ableville, one of its brave 
captains, sabre in hand, lost his life there, 
all covered with wounds, having won admi- 
ration by many brave and intrepid actions. 
The Chevalier de Heli [O'Healy], captain 
in the same regiment, distinguished himself 
in it, having had two horses killed under 
him by the enemy's cannon, and his brother, 
a cadet in his company, was slain there." 

O'Mahony ended the campaign of this 
year by following up Staremberg, punish- 
ing his rear-guard, and capturing a number 
of prisoners, including one hundred and 
fifty officers; and the following season he 
had driven the enemy out of the greater 
part of Catalonia. Henceforth the war 



DANIEL o'mAHONY. 137 

languished for want of organized opposi- 
tion, and finally ended in 1714 by the com- 
plete and substantial triumph of Philip V, 
with whose success and the restoration of 
peace Count O'Mahony's career may be 
said to have ended — gloriously ended. 

It is pleasant to recall the fact, alike 
honorable to Spain and Ireland, that the 
services of our countrymen in that long 
and doubtful war were, and have ever been, 
fully appreciated by that noble Iberian 
people ; and that while the Irish brigade, 
formed during it, was long and carefully 
maintained, the surviving officers were 
ti^eated with the greatest distinction, and 
they and their descendants admitted to the 
highest social, civil, and military positions. 
As one mark of his gratitude, Philip, by a 
royal declaration dated June 28th, 1721, 
placed the Irish Catholics resident in Spain 
on a footing of legal equality with his 
native-born subjects, an act which has ever 
since made the Spanish people friends with 
our countrymen. 



138 lEISH SOLDIERS. 



CHEVALIER WOQAN. 

STEALING A PRINCESS. 

Cut off from all home ties, generally 
romantic and adventurous, and always 
brave and chivalrous, the life of an Irish 
officer of the eighteenth century was 
usually one of variety and change as well 
as of daring and danger. At one time 
fighting in the swamps of Holland, and at 
another reposing in the palaces of the 
Medicis, now suffering amid the snows of 
Finland, and next combating the infidel on 
the torrid soil of Africa, our exiled country- 
men of that period must have thoroughly 
experienced the ^^ spice of life," variety, 
in all its degrees of piquancy ; and as their 
national character for adaptability to 
circumstances has been always the same, 
they must also have experienced a great 
many vicissitudes of fortune and achieved 



CHEVALIER WOGAN. 139 

many strange actions, the accounts of 
which, in most instances, we regret to say, 
are lost or forgotten for ever. 

There is one name, however, which 
stands out prominently in the annals of 
modern knight-errantry — that of Charles 
Wogan, whose authenticated adventures, 
alike honorable to himself, his country, and 
the cause he espoused, might well form the 
basis of many a thrilling tale and effective 
dramatic representation. Born at Rathcoffy, 
in Kildare, at a time when his creed and race 
were under the ban of alien invaders, he 
naturally sought distinction in foreign 
lands, and grew up a devout adherent of the 
Stuart cause. To a fine presence, a power- 
ful constitution, and a natural aptitude 
for intrigue, he added the advantages of an 
excellent education, cultivated manners, and 
unflinching fidelity to principle, which after- 
wards made him the trusted agent of 
continental governments and the personal 
favorite of princes and monarchs. 

The first public notice we find of Wogan 
is in England, in 1715, when an attempt 



140 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

was made to restore to the throne of that 
country James III, son of James II, for 
whom the Irish had suffered and lost so 
much. Young Wogan was deeply im- 
plicated in that attempt at restoration ; 
was, in fact, one of the principal organizers 
of the '^ conspiracy," and among the first to 
take up arms in the cause of one whom he 
considered his legitimate sovereign. The 
attempt, however, failed, and on the sur- 
render of Preston he was taken prisoner, 
sent in irons to London, and indicted for 
treason the following year. The trial, of 
course, it was expected would result in 
hanging. 

A life so valuable should not have ended 
so soon and so ignominiously : at least so 
thought Wogan; for, with eight companions, 
he overpowered the guard, managed to 
escape from prison, and though a large re- 
ward was offered for his recapture, he, after 
many narrow escapes, succeeded in reach- 
ing the continent. His adroitness and 
daring appear to have captivated the heart 
of the son of King James, for when that 



CHEVALIER WOGAN. 141 

prince, by the advice of his followers, as 
well as from his own inclination, resolved 
to offer his hand in marriage to the Princess 
Maria Clementina Sobieski, granddaughter 
of the most illustrious John Sobieski, for- 
merly King of Poland, the future chevalier 
was appointed to conduct the delicate 
preliminary negotiations. 

To us moderns and republicans, the union 
of even crowned heads does not seem a 
matter of much moment beyond the liappi- 
ness of those directly concerned; but in 
Europe at that time, and previously, and 
even since, marriage, instead of being con- 
sidered a sacrament and an affair purely 
domestic, was and still is looked upon as a 
matter of state policy, just as an armistice 
or a treaty is now regarded between two 
powers. The so-called '^ Ilonse of Hanover," 
the head of which was then rei<i:ninof in 
England, was interested in preventing the 
" House of Stuart," represented in the person 
of the exiled James III, from forming an 
alliance with any family of distinction and 
influence on the continent; and being on 



142 lUISII SOLDIERS. 

good terms with Austria, tlie Emperor 
Charles VI was induced to imprison tlie 
Princess Maria and lier mother, so as to 
prevent the proposed nuptials, a knowledge 
of which had been reached through the 
treachery or imprudence of some of James's 
followers. As long as the matter rested 
solely in the hands of Wogan, it was kept 
secret, and conducted with so much skill 
that a betrothal had actually taken place ; 
but the folly of Murray and Hay for a 
time prevented its consunmiation, and led 
to the restraint put on the fair intended 
bride. 

The place of confinement was Innsbruck, 
in the Tyrol, and tlie jailer Avas a General 
Heister. ]3ut James Francis Edward 
Stuart, tliough lie could not regain his 
kingdom, resolved not to lose a wife, and 
so he determined to rescue his lady-love. 
Not in person, however — for it is seldom 
the nature of kings to court danger — but 
by deputy, and the vicarious honor Avas 
entrusted to Wogan. Now this was a sort 
of enterprise that just suited the temper 



CHEVALIER WOGAN. 143 

and talents of the young Kildare man. He 
was ardently attached to the Stuarts, 
naturally hated the Hanoverians, revered 
the memory of Sobieski, but, above all, 
loved danger ; and as there was every pos- 
sibility that in case of failure his life would 
be forfeited, he resolved to obey his prince, 
and set free the lady. 

This could not be done without assist- 
ance, and in so desperate a strait he 
' naturally looked for allies in the brigade. 
In 1718-19, Dillon's regiment was in 
winter quarters at Scelstat, some miles from 
Strasburg, and thither, in March, the enter- 
prising Wogan, after having had an interview 
with Louis Sobieski, father of the young 
captive, and obtained his consent to his 
plans, repaired to enlist recruits for their 
proper execution. He had many kins- 
men, it seems, in the regiment, and this, 
besides the romance of the adventure, 
easily gained him adherents. Of the 
officers, however, he selected only three, — 
Major Richard Gaydon, and Captains Luke 
O'Toole and John Misset, the wife of the 



144 



IRISH SOLDIERS. 



latter and her servant also accompanying 
the party. From an account of this escapade 
published in London a few years later 
(1722), it is stated that all this party, this 
forlorn hope, spoke French well, and that 
^' O'Toole was master of high Dutch" 
besides. This latter fact has a comical 
significance when we consider that the 
gallant captain was noted even in his own 
regiment, in which were so many picked 
Irishmen, for his gigantic figure. 

Provided with proper means of transporta- 
tion, and furnished with passports obtained 
by Wogan, the rescuing force left Strasburg 
on the 16th April, and, after a week's travel 
without incident, arrived in the neighbor- 
hood of Innsbruck. By a well-devised 
scheme, the princess and her jewels were 
quietly taken out of prison at midnight, the 
servant of Madame Misset being left tempor- 
arily to answer in her place, and the little 
cavalcade set off at full speed for Italy, and 
entered Rome on the 15th of the following 
month, amid immense popular applause. 
The usual accidents of breaking down of 



CHEVALIER WOGAN. 145 

carriages and want of relays, it is said, 
happened on the road, and much danger 
was apprehended from couriers who, as soon 
as the escape was known, were sent forward 
to aj)prise the authorities and cause their 
arrest ; but as O'Toole and Misset brought 
up the rear-guard, it is scarcely necessary 
to say that the aforesaid couriers never over- 
took the main body of the enemy. It is 
even averred that these two Irish captains, 
having met by chance one of the mes- 
sengers, treated him so hospitably that he 
tvas incapacitated from pursuing his journey 
for twenty-four hours, and when he re- 
covered his senses he found that his kind 
entertainers had departed, and with them 
his despatches. 

When the news of this desperate and 
daring adventure became public, it created 
a tremendous sensation in Europe. The 
Emperor Charles imprisoned or eitiled 
every near relative of the liberated princess, 
and the "House of Hanover" set all its diplo- 
matic agents at work to have her restored 
and her liberators disgraced and punished. 

10 



146 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

But all in vain. The young couple were 
married in the Eternal City on the 2d of 
September of the same year, and honors of 
every description were showered on Wogan 
and his companions. They were made 
Roman senators by patent from Pope 
Clement XI, and on the 15th of June, 1719, 
were admitted into the Roman senate, and, 
in the presence of a large multitude of 
enthusiastic admirers, were welcomed by 
the prince of that body. Count Hippolito 
Albani, in an elaborate and highly eulogis- 
tic speech. The prince, also, to whose arms 
they restored his betrothed, showed them 
every mark of favor possible under the 
circumstances, by knighting each, and con- 
ferring on them, according to their several 
degrees, higher ranks in his service. 

Shortly after, Gaydon and O'Toole re- 
turned to Dillon's regiment, and no doubt 
the narration of their adventure enlivened 
many a mess and bivouac; while Misset 
and Wogan went to Spain and entered the 
military service of Philip V, where both 
rose to high commands, and obtained the 



CHEVALIER WOGAN 147 

rank of chevalier. In tlie history of that 
country in the last century, Wogan is men- 
tioned as being in command of the Spanish 
troops in Barbary, and of having gained, 
in 1733, a very splendid victory over the 
Moors at Santa Cruz. He continued during 
a long life to enjoy the confidence of his 
adopted country, and was honored with 
many important commands by its successive 
rulers. 

Like most of the distinguished Irish 
officers in foreign service at that day, he 
seems never to have lost sight of the in- 
terests of his motherland, and, while he 
remained faithful to the government and 
the people who had treated him with so 
much distinction, his thoughts were always 
turned towards the island he loved so well, 
and from which an alien and a hostile 
power had driven him, like many thousand 
other brave and intelligent men, and ren- 
dered them wanderers and outcasts on the 
face of the earth. 



148 IKISH SOLDIERS. 



AN OLD-FASHIONED DUEL. 

SWOEDS FOR FOUR COFFEE FOR TWO. 

It was towards the latter end of Queen 
Anne's reign, when Mr. Mathew, the cele- 
brated dispenser of Irish hospitality at 
Thomastown, in the county of Tipperary, 
returned to Dublin after his long residence 
abroad. At that time party spirit ran very 
high, but raged nowhere with such violence 
as in that city, insomuch that duels were 
every day fought there on that score. 
There happened to be, at that time, two 
gentlemen in London who valued them- 
selves highly on their skill in fencing ; the 
name of one was Pack, of the other Creed; 
the former a major, the latter a captain, in 
the army. Hearing of these daily exploits 
in Dublin, they resolved, like two knights- 
errant, to go over in quest of adventure. 
Upon inquiry, they learned that Mr. 



AN OLD-FASHIONED DUEL. 149 

Matliew, lately arrived from France, had 
the character of being one of the first 
swordsmen in Em'ope. Pack, rejoiced to 
find an antagonist worthy of him, resolved, 
the first opportunity, to pick a quarrel with 
him; and meeting him as he was carried 
along the streets in his chair, jostled the 
fore-chairman. Of this Mathew took no 
notice, as supposing it to be accidental. 
But Pack afterwards boasted of it in the 
public cofi'ee-house, saying that he had 
puposely offered this insult to the gentle- 
man, who had not the sphit to resent it. 
There happened to be present a particular 
friend of Mr. Mathew of the name of Mac- 
namara, a man of tried courage, and re- 
puted the best fencer in Ireland. He im- 
mediately took up the quarrel, and said he 
was sure Mr. Mathew did not suppose the 
affront intended, otherwise he would have 
chastised him on the spot; but if the major 
would let him know where he was to be 
found, he should be waited on immediately 
on his friend's return, who was to dine a 
little way out of town. The major said he 



150 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

should be at the tavern over the way, 
where he and his companions would wait 
their commands. Immediately on his 
arrival, Mathew, being made acquainted 
with what had passed, went from the 
coffee-house to the tavern, accompanied by 
Macnamara. Being shown into the room 
where the two gentlemen were, after having 
secured the door, without any expostula- 
tion, Mathew and Pack drew their swords ; 
but Macnamara stopped them, saying he 
had something to propose before they pro- 
ceeded to action. He said, in cases of this 
nature, he could never bear to be a cool 
spectator. ^^ So, sir," addressing himself to 
Creed, ^^i£jou please, I shall have the honor 
of entertaining you in the same manner." 
Creed, who desired no better sport, made 
no other reply than that of instantly draw- 
ing his sword, and to work the four cham- 
pions fell, with the same composure as if it 
were only a fencing-match with foils. The 
conflict was of some duration, and main- 
tained with great obstinacy by the two 
officers, notwithstanding the great effusion 



AN OLD-FASHIONED DUEL. 151 

of blood from tlie many wounds they had 
received. At length, quite exhausted, they 
both fell, and yielded the victory to the 
superior skill of their antagonists. 

Upon this occasion Mathew gave a re- 
markable proof of the perfect composure of 
his mind during the action. Creed had 
fallen the fii'st, upon which Pack exclaimed, 
^' Ah, poor Creed ! are you gone ! " ^^ Yes," 
said Mathew, very composedly, ^^ and you 
shall instantly ]pack after Mm^^'' at the same 
time making a home-thrust quite through 
his body, which threw him to the ground. 
This was the more remarkable as he was 
never in his life, either before or after, 
known to have attempted a pun. The 
officers, though dangerously wounded, sur- 
vived. 



152 lEISH SOLDIERS. 



LORD CLARE. 

BATTLE OF FONTENOY. 

This great battle, tlie most decisive 
fought in Europe during the last century, 
was the one in which the heroism of the 
Irish troops in the service of France was dis- 
played with the greatest lustre for them- 
selves, the greatest advantage to the coun- 
try that had given them a home — and to 
a certain extent, fame and honor — and, 
best of all, with the most tangible damage 
to the interests and power of the class that, 
had been their greatest enemies at home 
and their most insidious maligners 
abroad. The particulars of this celebrated 
engagement have been so minutely de- 
scribed by contemporary historians, and are 
so generally known, forming as they have 
done the darling theme of many a song, 
tale, and oration, that it is not necessary to 



LORD CLARE. 153 

recall them here. We desire only to 
point out to the historical student the 
singular unanimity of all historians of that 
epoch — French, German, Irish, and Eng- 
lish — in ascribing the victory of Louis XV 
mainly to the desperate and steady bravery 
of his Irish allies ; though of course the 
writers of. each nation looked upon the 
cause in which the opponents were en- 
gaged, the merits of the quarrel, and the 
results of the struggle, from a different 
stand-point. 

With the people of Ireland, this grand 
battle has never ceased to be a topic of the 
greatest interest, and the success of the 
brigade in defeating England, a legacy 
of inestimable national value; and while 
they feel a conscious self-importance in re- 
ferring to it, they have generally restrained 
theu' claim to recognition as the victors, or 
the countrymen of the victors, within 
reasonable bounds. The old apothegm, 
*^ the hour of victory is the hour of magna- 
nimity," generally obtains with them, — we 
might say, too often for their own good ; but 



154 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

as in this case the victory was so palpable, 
and the defeat so humiliating, we can afford 
to be generous, and in describing the 
gallantry of the Irish simply give a bald 
statement of the facts. 

The eighteenth century was distinguish- 
ed for what might be called its complicated 
wars. The one to which we now allude 
found England, Holland, Austria, and 
Hanover arrayed against France, who, 
single-handed, if we except her Swiss 
mercenaries and that ever-faithful force, 
always renewed, of the exiled Irish, not 
only defended herself, but carried the war 
into the enemy's camp. Early in 1745, the 
campaign opened in Flanders. The force 
opposed to the French in the field and fit 
for duty, is set down by all impartial his- 
torians at from fifty to fifty-six thousand 
men, including twenty-two thousand Eng- 
lish and thirty-two thousand Dutch, 
Hanoverians, and Austrians. The whole 
were under the command of the Duke of 
Cumberland, of "bloody" memory, son to 
King George II, whose object was to 



LORD CLARE. 155 

relieve Toumay and eventually drive the 
French from the Low Countries. The 
French army, exclusive of those besieging 
Tournay and detached to defend the bridges 
over the Scheldt, numbered about forty 
thousand, including the Swiss guard and 
some artillerymen of that gallant little re- 
public, and all the Irish forces then serving 
in France, viz.: the infantry regiments of 
Clare, Dillon, Bulkeley (MontcasheFs 
formerly). Roth, Berwick, and Lally, and 
the cavalry regiment of Fitz- James. 

Lieutenant-General Charles O'Brien, 
sixth Viscount Clare and ninth Earl of 
Thomond, commanded the Irish infantry 
on this occasion, and the celebrated 
Maurice, Count Saxe, the entire army — 
Louis XV and the Dauphin being on the 
field, and ex-officio commandants. The 
dissolute but fearless Duke de Richelieu 
figured as principal aid on the royal staff, 
and the amiable, enthusiastic, and astute 
Lally Tollendal spared all the time possible 
from his Irish regiment to inspect the 
night previous to the engagement, not only 



156 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

the French lines, but those of the enemy. 
As the result proved, his vigilance and fore- 
sight were, beyond doubt, among the chief 
causes of the final, and at one time unlooked 
for, results of the day. 

On the morning of the 11th of May, 
1745, after a heavy cannonade, the allies 
attacked the French position at Fontenoy 
in three columns. Their right, led by 
Brigadier Richard Ingoldsby, who was 
ordered to assault the redoubt at the edge 
of the wood of Du Barry, failed to perform 
this duty successfully, and remained com- 
paratively inactive during the remainder 
of the engagement. The left, under 
Prince de Waldeck, though more fortunate, 
did not altogether succeed in breaking 
through from Fontenoy to St. Anthony ; 
but the centre, a column of some fifteen or 
sixteen thousand men and twenty field- 
pieces, led by Cumberland in person, pene- 
trated the French lines, and for a while 
seemed to bear down all opposition. March- 
ing in a solid column, firing with the 
steadiness and precision of trained veterans. 



LORD CLARE. 157 

and flanked by well-served artillery, they 
successfully routed all the French cavalry 
and mfantry that essayed in vain to oppose 
their progress. Even the enfilading fire of 
the enemy's guns seemed to make little 
impression on their compact masses as they 
moved solidly on to assured victory. At 
this juncture, when the fate of nations 
hung suspended in the balance, the Irish 
brigade and two French regiments, that 
of Normandie and des Vaesseaux, which 
had formed the reserve, were ordered as 
a dernier resort to attack Cumberland's 
column, which had momentarily halted on 
the crest of a hill, preparatory to the grand 
coup de grace. Promptly as the word was 
given. Lord Clare formed his men in line, 
having ordered them not to fire before 
charging, and, at the word of command, 
with the impetuosity of a whirlwind, the 
Irish troops swept up the hill, and in a 
very few moments the victorious legion 
that but lately was so certain of victory 
went down before the avenging steel of the 
exiles, or were fleeing over the adjacent 



158 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

hills, a scattered and disorganized rabble. 
Fifteen guns and two colors remained in 
the hands of the brigade. Its loss was, how- 
ever, heavy, but in proportion to the fury 
of its onslaught. It amounted in officers 
killed or wounded to ninety-eight, with a 
proportionate number of common soldiers 
and non-commissioned officers. This victory 
of the Irish, so dearly purchased, but so 
nobly won, was the subject of warm con- 
gratulation by their countrymen and co- 
religionists throughout Europe, and created 
the greatest chagrin among their enemies, 
particularly in England. Louis XV and the 
Dauphin, who had been spectators of the 
scene, went in person to thank each of the 
successful regiments, and the historians and 
chroniclers of the day were unceasing in 
their praise of the brave Irelandais. Lally 
and other field-officers were promoted, pen- 
sions were liberally distributed to the 
wounded, and decorations to the deserving ; 
while all that the second George of 
England could exclaim, on hearing the news 
of the defeat of his son, was, " Cursed be the 



LORD CLARE. 159 

laws which deprive me of such subjects," — 
a sentiment which afterwards found an 
echo in the hearts of British statesmen, and 
doubtless, materially modified their views 
of the wisdom of penal laws and Catholic 
persecution. 



160 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



CAPTAIN CAREW. 

IMPLICIT OBEDIENCE. 

JKosWELL, the biographer of the cele- 
brated Dr. Johnson, and a Scotchman at 
that, relates the following incident of the 
war in Italy in 1765, in his "History of 
Corsica ": — 

" During the late war in Italy, at the siege 
of Tortona, the commander of the army 
which lay before the town ordered Carew, 
an Irish officer in the service of Naples, to 
advance with a detachment to a particular 
post. Having given his order, he whispered 
to Carew : ^ Sir, I know you to be a gallant 
man. I have therefore put you on this 
duty. I tell you in confidence it is certain 
death for you all. I place you there to 
make the enemy spring a mine under you.' 
Carew made a bow to the general, and led 
on his men in silence to the dreadful post. 



CAPTAIN CAREW. 161 

He there stood with an undaunted counte- 
nance, and having called to one of the 
soldiers for a draught of wine, ' Here,' 
said he, ' I drink to all those who bravely 
fall in battle ! ' Fortunately, at that instant 
Tortona capitulated, and Carew escaped. 
But he had thus a full opportunity of dis- 
playing a rare instance of intrepidity. It 
is with pleasure," adds the narrator, ^Hhat 
I record an anecdote so much to the honor of 
a gentleman of that nation upon which so 
many illiberal reflections are so often thrown 
by those of whom it little deserves them. 
Whatever may be the rough jokes of 
wealthy insolence, or the envious sarcasms 
of needy jealousy, the Irish have ever been, 
and will continue to be, highly regarded 
upon the continent." 



11 



162 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



MAJOE-GENERAL RICHARD MONT- 
GOMERY. 

THE INVASION OF CANADA. 

General Richard Montgomery, the 
proto-martyr of the American revolution, 
was in his thirty-ninth year, having been 
born in the north of Ireland, A. D. 1737, 
when he was called upon by his adopted 
country to take up arms in defence of her 
new-born freedom. The choice was an 
excellent one, for, by temperament, educa- 
tion, training", and experience, he was emi- 
nently qualified to lead and govern men, 
even under the most trying circumstances. 

At the early age of twenty-three, being 
then an inferior officer, he distinguished 
himself in the second siege of Louisburg; 
and, having been successively promoted to 
the rank of major and colonel, took a con- 
spicuous part in the decisive battle between 



RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 163 

Wolfe and Montcalm on the plains of Abra- 
ham and at the capture of Quebec. When 
the conquest of Canada by the British was 
complete, he returned home, where he spent 
some years with his friends and in travelling 
on the continent, but finally returned to 
America, settled at Rhinebeck, on the Hud- 
son, in this State, and married a daughter of 
Chancellor Livingston. 

His commission as brigadier-general was 
made out in June, 1775, and in accepting it 
he made use of the following noble and man- 
ly language: — ^^The Congress having done 
me the honor of electing me brigadier-gen- 
eral in their service," he wrote, '4s an event 
which must put an end for a while, perhaps 
for ever, to the quiet scheme of life I had 
prescribed for myself; for, though entirely 
unexpected and undesired by me, the will 
of an oppressed people, compelled to choose 
between liberty and slavery, must be 
obeyed." 

The design of Washington in invading 
Canada was to send two expeditions from 
separate points, which were to form a 



164 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

junction near Quebec, and, by a combined 
movement, to capture the fortress and city, 
then, as now, the most unassailable position 
on the continent, and at that time the princi- 
pal stronghold of the Enghsh north of the 
St. Lawrence. One of those columns was 
placed under the charge of the infamous, 
but skilful, Benedict Arnold, who was to 
advance through New England and the 
eastern townships ; and the other was to 
proceed from Fort Ticonderoga, and, after 
capturing the more western points, make a 
junction with Arnold's forces in the neigh- 
borhood of their main objective point. 
The latter was to have been led by Major- 
General Schuyler, but that officer falling 
sick, Montgomery took command. His 
march was rapid, his plans well laid, and 
his success, for a while, brilliant and com- 
plete. Fort Chambly surrendered to his 
attack, St. John's was taken, and Monti'eal 
soon after occupied by his troops ; Canada, 
in fact, was more than half conquered, and 
all that remained was the fall of her last 
stronghold, Quebec. To effect this most 



EICHARD MONTGOMERY. 165 

desirable object, Montgomery , in November, 
notwithstanding the severity of a Canadian 
winter, put his force in motion, and after a 
toilsome and tedious march arrived in the 
vicinity of the city, and effected a junction 
with the other column, which had already 
arrived at the point agreed upon. 

As might be expected, his own men had 
suffered much from the rigor of the climate 
at that season, but Arnold's men were even 
in a worse plight. However, on taking 
supreme command, for he outranked Arnold, 
he endeavored, like a good and humane 
general, to alleviate the sufferings of his 
soldiers, and by judicious words and ex- 
ample to inspire them with hope and con- 
fidence, and to infuse into them that spirit 
of j)atient endurance wliich is one of the 
noblest qualities of a military man, whether 
he be of the rank and file, or the com- 
mander of thousands. One who was pre- 
sent at his first review and inspection thus 
minutely describes the effect of his presence 
among the patriots : — '' It was lowering and 
cold, but the appearance of the general here 



166 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

gave us warmth and animation. He was 
well-limbed, tall, and handsome, though 
his face was much pock-marked. His air 
and manner designated the real soldier. 
He made us a short but energetic speech, 
the burden of which was in applause of our 
spirit in crossing the wilderness ; a hope 
that our perseverance in that spirit would 
continue; and a promise of warm clothing. 
The latter was a most comforting assurance. 
A few huzzas from our freezing bodies were 
returned to this address of the gallant hero. 
New life was infused into the whole corps."* 
A month was occupied in preparations 
for the attack, and on the night of the last 
day of the year, so memorable in the 
annals of this country, it was resolved to 
make a simultaneous assault on the city 
and citadel from two opposite points. 
While the main body, under the com- 
mander-in-chief, was to attempt the Castle 
of St. Louis, the strongest and most domi- 
nant part of the works, Arnold was to enter 
the town by the suburb of St. Eoque; a 

* Mass. Hist. Collection, &,c., vol. i. 



RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 167 

point of rendezvous having been appointed 
inside, if both were successful, and a system 
of communication by rockets established. 
Arnold advanced his troops as directed, but 
on reaching the palace gate he fell seriously 
wounded, giving place to General Morgan, 
who penetrated some distance into the town, 
and held his ground in the street for a con- 
siderable time, till obliged to give way 
before superior numbers. His attack, how- 
ever, was more in the nature of a diversion, 
and its ill success did not materially con- 
tribute to the disasters of the day. The 
principal duty of capturing the fortifica- 
tions Montgomery reserved for himself, as 
being the most hazardous ; those once 
taken, the city was at his mercy. 

The Castle of St. Louis, and the other 
works which form the fortress of Quebec, 
stand on an eminence of about seven 
hundred feet in height, rising almost from the 
verge of the river at an angle of seventy- 
five or eighty degrees. At the base of this 
hill, and between it and the water, along 
what is called Diamond Cove, runs a road. 



168 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

the approach to which, on that occasion, 
was defended by an outwork mounting two 
guns, and was guarded by some militia. 
Montgomery advanced along this road from 
the west, and on the appearance of his 
advanced guard its defenders fled precipi- 
tately, but not before one of them, a New 
England sea-captain, it is said, touched ofl" a 
gun, the discharge from which deprived the 
United Colonies of one of their best and 
purest ofiicers, and killed or wounded 
several of his staff. It not yet being day- 
light, the cannon and small arms of the 
main works were turned in the direction 
of the sound of alarm created by the firing 
of the single piece of ordnance, with 
deadly effect ; and having lost then leader, 
the Americans retreated in confusion. 
When the wintry sun rose late on the 
scene, the gallant Montgomery was found 
a frozen corpse, near the place of his 
former triumphs, — dead it is true, but fallen 
in a holier cause than that in which he had 
been formerly successful and had come out 
unscathed. 



RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 169 

Such is the account given by Hawkins 
in his History o£ Quebec, and which has 
been generally received as correct; but 
there are other versions of the affair which 
differ materially from this, and, while they 
bear in themselves the intrinsic evidence of 
probability, are consonant with the tradi- 
tions of the older inhabitants of the 
menaced city. According to these state- 
ments, Montgomery, following the river 
road until immediately beneath the Castle 
of St. Louis, faced his men to the left and 
ordered a charge on the works right up the 
steep face of the hill. While at their head, 
sword in hand, and in a small water- worn 
gully, he was mortally wounded by a stray 
shot from the garrison. The Irishmen of 
Quebec many years ago placed a painted 
board in this very gully to indicate the spot, 
and though frequently removed by the 
British sympathizers, it was as often re- 
placed, until at length allowed to remain 
unmolested. In addition to the date, it bore 
the simple but emphatic words : 

*' HERE THE GALLANT MONTGOMERY FELL." 



170 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

From a close inspection of tlie fortifica- 
tions at this part of the defences, we are 
inclined to think that Hawkins is mistaken, 
as, from the nature of the ground, it would 
have been impossible to depress the heavy 
guns of the citadel sufficiently to cover the 
road leading to Cape Diamond within a 
mile at least of the works. However, as the 
time may not be far distant when some of 
our military countrymen may have an 
opportunity of critically examining the 
matter for themselves, we await their 
judgment with patience. 

The body of the Irish- American hero fell 
into the hands of the enemy ; and at first Sir 
Guy Carleton, the governor, with a petty 
spleen that became his position, and which 
has since been so thoroughly amplified in 
the person of Sir Hudson Lowe, refused his 
remains the poor courtesy of Christian 
burial. It was, however, at length conceded. 
In 1816, the Empire State, grateful to her 
adopted son, and proud of his heroism, 
caused his remains to be disinterred and 
brousrht to New York, where they now 



RICHAKD MONTGOMERY. 171 

repose in the vaults of St. PauPs Church, at 
the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street, 
one of the most conspicuous parts of the 
greatest city of the New World. The mar- 
ble slab, set into the wall of the church, 
bears the following inscription : — 

THIS MONUMENT 

WAS ERECTED BY ORDER OP CONGRESS, 

25th JANUARY, 1776, 

TO TRANSMIT TO POSTERITY A GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE 

OP THE PATRIOTISM, CONDUCT, ENTERPRISE, 

AND PERSEVERANCE OP 

MAJOR-GENERAL RICHARD MONTGOMERY, 

WHO, AFTER A SERIES OP SUCCESSES, AMIDST THE 

MOST DISCOURAGING DIFFICULTIES, 

FELL IN THE ATTACK ON QUEBEC, 31 ST DECEMBER, 1775, 

AGED 37 YEARS. 



THE STATE OF NEW YORK CAUSED THE REMAINS 
OF 

MAJOR-GENERAL RICHARD MONTGOMERY 

TO BE CONVEYED FROM QUEBEC 

AND DEPOSITED BENEATH THIS MONUMENT, 

THE 8th day OP JULY, 1818. 



172 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

It may be here mentioned that, on each 
side of the church, twin guardians, as it 
were, of their illustrious countryman's ashes, 
rise the obelisks of Thomas Addis Emmet 
and Dr. Thomas McNevin, who, though 
their advent in this country was later, 
equally, each in his own profession, " con- 
ferred honor on the land of his birth, and 
great benefits on the land of his adoption." 



JOHN SULLIVAN. 173 



JOHN SULLIVAN. 

HOW HE SEIZED AN OPPORTUNITY AND SOME 

CANNON. 

When the news of tlie massacre of several 
citizens in the streets of Boston (one of 
whom, by the way, was an Irishman) reach- 
ed New Hampshire, Major John Sullivan 
and John Langdon, of Portsmouth, with a 
company of townsmen mostly Irish or of 
Irish descent, surprised the Fort at New- 
castle, took pnsoners the captain in charge 
and his small garrison, and appropriated 
for the use of the patriots one hundred 
barrels of powder, fifteen cannons, and all 
the muskets upon which they could lay 
hands. As the export of gunpowder to the 
colonies had been prohibited by the 
"mother country," this windfall was of great 
use to the minute-men of Massachusetts 



174 IRISH SOLDIEES. 

when they encountered the enemy in force 
at Bunker's, or rather Breed's, Hill, near 
Boston. 

Sullivan of course accompanied his prizes, 
and took part in that initial battle of the 
Revolution, having in the meantime, for his 
timely services at Newcastle, been elected 
to the Continental Congress, and made a 
brigadier-general; and, when Warren was 
killed, and the patriots driven back and dis- 
persed, he took command of them and reor- 
ganized their broken ranks. He was with 
Washington at the siege of Boston, and 
doubtless celebrated St. Patrick's Day, 1776, 
with all the honors, for on that day he had 
the satisfaction of seeing the English fleet 
sail out of Boston harbor with all the gar- 
rison on board, thus abandoning for ever 
the " Hub," which since has sadly forgotten 
the services rendered to it by such men as 
Sullivan and his compatriots. 

Like his chief, Washington, Sullivan's 
subsequent career was honorable and con- 
sistent, and, if not always successful, it was 
by no means barren of good results to the 



JOHN SULLIVAN. 175 

struggling colonies. He commanded the 
American forces at the Battle of Brooklyn, 
or rather of Gowanus, and though assailed 
by a superior force and cut off from rein- 
forcements by the interposition of the East 
River, then almost impassable, the disposi- 
tion he made of his raw levies, and the per- 
sistency with which he maintained his posi- 
tion, elicited the thanks and praise of his 
commander-in-chief. Like Montgomery, 
Stark, and other expatriated Irishmen, he 
had learned the use of arms and the science 
of warfare in the Canadian wars, under 
British colors, only, as it would seem, to 
use that knowledge, when a fair opportu- 
nity presented itself, with deadly effect 
against the hereditary enemy of his race. 



176 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



" MAD " ANTHONY WAYNE. 

CAPTURE OF STONY POINT. 

In the summer of 1775, several regiments 
were ordered to be raised in Pennsylvania 
and other States by Congress. In the 
former, amongst those commissioned as 
colonels, we find the following names of 
Irishmen : William Irving, William Thomp- 
son, Walter Stewart, Stephen Moylan, 
Richard Butler, and Anthony Wayne. Of 
these the latter became the most distin- 
guished, having earned a place in American 
history scarcely second to that of any of 
the partisan soldiers of the revolutionary 
war. For his gallant conduct in various 
engagements and skirmishes he was com- 
missioned brigadier-general in February, 
1777; and once in command of a brigade, it 
was rare to find him absent when any 
fighting was to be done. He was con- 



ANTHONY WAYNE. 177 

spicuous at the battle of Germantown, and 
for his mtrepidity and judgment at Mon- 
mouth he received the thanks both of 
"Washington and Congress. Dming the 
dismal winter encampment at Valley Forge, 
during the darkest days of the Revolution, 
he may be said to have kept the troops 
alive, for he was a most persistent and suc- 
cessful forager. Disregarding all the com- 
forts of life himself, he was ever mindful of 
the wants of others, and spared no pains 
to supply them. 

His most brilliant achievement — one 
which, from its desperate nature and rapidity 
of execution, earned him the sobriquet of 
*'Mad," as it was thought no sane man 
would have had courage to attempt it — was 
the storming of Stony Point, a post on the 
south side of the Hudson river, commanding 
what was called the King's Feny, then the 
usual route of communication between the 
east and the States farther south. It also 
commanded the approach to the Highlands 
by the river, and may be compared, there- 
fore, to a fort built at the junction of cross- 

12 



178 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

roads, facing towards the cardinal points of 
tlie compass. The position was a strong one, 
being protected by the river in front, and on 
both flanks, while a deep morass cut off all 
approach from the mainland. The garrison 
consisted of eight hundred men, and the 
supply of ordnance, ammunition, and small 
arms was unlimited, as the importance of 
the post demanded. About dark, on a quiet 
July night, Wayne noiselessly approached 
this formidable work, unheralded and unseen, 
and when close under its walls he gave the 
order for an assault, and his men went 
across the ditch and over the rampart with 
a celerity and impetuosity that was irresist- 
ible. " Mad " Anthony led them in person, 
and in ten minutes was master of the whole 
place — men, guns, powder, and shot. This 
was one of the most dashing and decisive 
engagements of the war. 

That at Bergen Point, which occuiTed the 
following week, though perhaps not so dar- 
ing, was equally successful, and fraught with 
great advantage to the American arms. 
The British were compelled to retreat across 



ANTHONY WAYNE. 179 

the Hudson to New York, and that part of 
Jersey at least was freed from a hostile 
force. 

Many minor acts of General Wayne's 
career might be recorded, but his memory 
is so embalmed in the hearts of the Amencan 
people, that it were useless to expatiate 
further on the prowess and daring of this 
remarkable Irish- American soldier. 



180 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



aENEEAL JOHN STARK. 

BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. 

The very name of Londonderry, N. H., 
suggests the birthplace of this distinguished 
soldier and ardent advocate of American 
independence. His early career, so charac- 
teristic of the future man, is succinctly told 
by Barstow in the History of New Hamp- 
shire. It is as follows : — " In this year 
(1753), a striking story is told of four 
hunters from Londonderry, who had wan- 
dered in quest of game into the territory of 
the Canadian Aroostooks. Two of them 
were scalped, and two taken prisoners. 
They were condemned at St. Francis to 
run the gauntlet. This consists in passing 
through two files of warriors, each of whom 
is privileged to give the prisoner a blow. 
The elder of the prisoners passed through 
first, and suffered little less than death. 



GENERAL JOHN STARK. 181 

The younger and remaining one was a lad 
of sixteen years. When his turn came, he 
marched forward with a bold ^ir, snatched 
a club from the nearest Indian, and attack- 
ed the wan'iors as he advanced on the lines, 
dealing blows right and left with a merci- 
less and almost deadly force. Nothing in 
the conduct of a prisoner so charms the 
savage mind as a haughty demeanor and 
contempt of death. The old men were 
amused and delighted ; the young wamors, 
were struck with admiration at the gallant 
bearing of the youthful captive. They next 
ordered him to hoe corn. He cut it up by 
the roots, declaring that such work was fit 
for squaws, but unworthy of warriors. 
From that period he became their favorite. 
They adopted him as a son, and gave him 
the title of ^^ young chief" They dressed 
him in the highest style of Indian splendor, 
and decorated him with wampum and silver. 
It was not long after this that Captain 
Stephens was despatched on an embassy 
to redeem the captives. The first one off'er- 
ed him was their favorite young chief 



182 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Captain Stephens received him at their 
hands with dehght. But no one of the rude 
warriors recognized in the young chief of 
their affection the future American general, 
John Stark. 

Stark had early taken service under the 
United Colonies, but, chagrined at finding 
officers much his juniors, and possessed of 
far less experience, he resigned his commis- 
sion and retired into private life, in which 
course of action it may be said he followed 
the example of many brave and skilful men 
whom the shortsightedness of Congress, com- 
prised almost exclusively of civilians, had 
driven from the army. However, when, on 
the failure of the attempt on Quebec, Gen- 
eral Burgoyne advanced from Canada at 
the head of a considerable force with the 
intention of attacking New York, Stark's 
military ardor was again aroused. Bur- 
goyne sent in advance a large party of 
cavalry, infantry, and artillery to forage in 
Vermont, and Greneral Stark at the head of 
the New Hampshire militia prepared to 
dispute their passage. The opposing forces 



GENERAL JOHN STARK. 183 

met at Bennington. The engagement lasted 
but a few minutes ; it was short, sharp, and 
decisive, and ended with the total rout of 
the English, and the capture of guns, stores, 
colors, and munitions. This victory led to 
that of Saratoga, when the main body of 
the British surrendered; for, weakened by 
the destruction of so large a portion of his 
aimy and the loss of his guns, that unlucky 
general, Burgoyne, was unable to sustain 
a pitched battle, much less effect the main 
purpose of his expedition. 

It was at Bennington, just before the fight, 
that the British commandant, Colonel Baum, 
addressed his troops in a grandiloquent 
oration, dwelling long on their duty to their 
sovereign, &c., &c. General Stark, who was 
a man of few words but of decisive action, 
also spoke to his men in the following 
laconic terms : "My boys, you see those red- 
coats yonder? They must fall into our 
hands in fifteen minutes, or Molly Stark will 
be a widow ! ■'' It is needless to say that 
Mrs. Stark was not a widow. The veteran 
himself lived to a good old age, and when, 



184 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

in the second war witli England, General 
Hull ingloriously surrendered the guns he 
had captured at Bennington, no one re- 
gretted the mishap more than he, — in fact, 
despite his age and consequent infirmities, 
it was with difficulty he could be restrained 
from reentering the service to avenge his 
country's defeat. Of such stern stuff were 
our Revolutionary ancestors made. 



GENERAL EDWARD HAND. 185 



GENERAL EDWARD HAND. 

HOW A DOCTOR KILLED HIS ENEMIES, INSTEAD 
OF HIS PATIENTS. 

When a portion of the Irish Brigade in 
the service of France was sent first to the 
West Indies and then to Canada to assist 
in the defence of that colony against the 
Enghsh, one of the surgeons who accom- 
panied the detachment was an Irishman 
named Edward Hand. When the treaty 
of 1763 transferred all that portion of the 
French possessions to England, Hand left 
the service, and settled in Pennsylvania. 
When the tocsin of revolutionary war was 
sounded throughout the land, the gallant 
doctor, throwing aside pill-box and scalpel, 
resolved to adopt the sabretache and sabre, 
and fight like a soldier in defence of the 
country that had given him a home and 



186 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

guaranteed him freedom. Like a true 
physician, he was fond of blood, but instead 
of kiUing off his friends secundum artem, he 
preferred to practise a httle phlebotomy on 
the common enemy. Accordingly, we find 
him in the summer of 1775 a lieutenant- 
colonel in the regiment of his countryman, 
"William Thompson, the next year a full 
colonel, and soon after a brigadier- general. 
Such rapid promotion of an officer who was 
a comparative stranger, without many 
friends, or any previous practical military 
experience, argues well for his capacity and 
bravery, and we are prepared for the eulogy 
of the historian who says that he subse- 
quently " was distinguished in every action." 
He commanded at Albany in 1778, having 
succeeded Greneral Sullivan, and that year 
made a successful excursion against the 
Five Indian Nations, who, through the 
machinations of Johnson, had taken up arms 
against the patriots, and greatly annoyed 
the outposts. In 1780 he got com- 
mand of a light infantry corps and fought 
the Delawares, and in the following year he 



GENERAL EDWARD HAND. * 187 

was commissioned adjutant-general, which 
position he held till the close of the war. 
He was a special favorite with Washington, 
and when that illustrious patriot consented 
to accept once more the office of com- 
mander-in-chief of the army, he advised 
the reappointment of Hand to the adjutant- 
generalship. This gallant officer died at 
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1803, full of 
years and of both civic and military honors. 
We seldom find gentlemen of the medical 
profession forsaking the healing art to deal 
hard and deadly blows, though in the 
Kevolutionary times, when men's souls were 
stirred to their veriest depths, we have such 
instances as that of Warren, Hand, and 
some others ; and even in these degenerate 
days we might mention some bright ex- 
amples. We must not forget that, in one of 
the battles of our late civil war, we think 
at Gaines' Mills, June 1864, when Corcoran's 
Legion was hotly engaged, and a reti-eat 
seemed imminent, a regimental surgeon, 
Dr. Neallis, drew his fragile staff sword, and 
rushing into the midst of the partially dis- 



188 ' IRISH SOLDIERS. 

organized troops, rallied tliera by his sten- 
torian commands and undauntedly led them 
right against the enemy. Since then, he 
has been better known among the veterans 
of the Legion by the title of the " Fighting 
Doctor," than by the more peaceful one of 
surgeon. 



COLONEL FITZGERALD. 189 



COLONEL FITZGERALD. 

THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON, N. J. 

But little is known of this officer except 
that, like Lafayette, Colonel Stephen Moy- 
lan of Cork (afterwards in command of 
Moylan's Dragoons), and other distinguished 
foreigners, he served on Washington's staff 
and made one of his military family, enjoy- 
ing not only the confidence and respect, 
but the friendship of the "Father of his 
country." The adopted son of Washington 
thus pleasantly alludes to an incident in 
Fitzgerald's military career : '' Colonel Fitz- 
gerald was an Irish officer in the old ^ Blue 
and BujBFs,' the first volunteer company 
raised in the South in the dawn of the Re- 
volution, and commanded by Washington. 
In the campaign of 1778, and retreat 
through the Jerseys, Fitzgerald was ap- 
pointed aide-de-camp to Washington. At 



i90 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

the battle of Princeton occurred that touch- 
ing scene, consecrated by history to ever- 
lasting remembrance. The American 
troops, worn down by hardship, exhausting 
marches, and want of food, on the fall of 
their leader, that brave old Scotchman, 
General Mercer, recoiled before the bayo- 
nets of the veteran foe. Washington 
spurred his horse into the interval between 
the hostile lines, reining up with the 
charger^s head to the foe, and calling to his 
soldiers ^ Will you give up your general to 
the enemy I ' The appeal was not made 
in vain. The Americans faced about, and 
the arms were levelled on both sides — 
Washington between them — even as though 
he had been placed there as a target for 
both. It was at this moment that Fitz- 
gerald returned from carrying an order to 
the rear; and here let us use the gallant 
veteran's own words. He said: ^On my 
return, I perceived the general immediately 
between our line and that of the enemy, 
both lines levelling for a decisive fire that 
was to decide the fortune of the day. 



COLONEL FITZGERALD. 191 

Instantly there was a roar of musketry 
followed by a shout. It was the shout of 
victory. On raising my eyes I discovered 
the enemy broken and flying, while, dimly, 
amid the glimpses of the smoke, was seen 
Washington alive and unharmed, waving his 
hat and cheering his comrades to the pm*- 
suit. 1 dashed my rowels into my charger's 
flanks and flew to his side, exclaiming, 
^' Thank God ! your Excellency is safe." I 
wept like a child for joy.' " 

Looking back to the history of the 
American Revolution, one is astonished to 
find what a large portion of the armies of 
the young republic was made up of Irish- 
men and their sons, born on this soil, and it 
ought to be a source of deep gratification 
and honest pride to think that our country- 
men and their descendants took so active a 
part in securing to posterity the liberties 
which we now enjoy. It has been cal- 
culated by the best authorities that the 
Irish element formed at least one-third of 
the ofiicers and privates who took part in 
the great struggle from 1775 to 1782. We 



192 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

have mentioned above the names of only a 
few prominent officers of Irish birth ; we 
might have sketched the career of many more 
of inferior grade, but even collectively they 
would be far outnumbered by those whose 
immediate ancestors were from the martial 
^'Island of Saints." Then again there were 
a number of Franco-Irish officers who vol- 
unteered their services, such as McMahon, 
Dillon, Conway, and Roche Fermoy, who, 
ever anxious to have another blow at 
England, forsook the attractions of Paris 
and resigned the chances of promotion, to 
cross the Atlantic and place their swords 
and experience at the service of the Con- 
tinental Congress. The Irishmen of to-day 
should feel deeply grateful to those heroic 
and liberty-loving men, for it was they 
who, by their fearlessness and public spirit, 
have given us the right to inherit the 
glories and fame of our " Revolutionary 
forefathers." 



COMMODOEE JOHN BARRY. 193 



COMMODOEE JOHN BARRY. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. 

One of the greatest difficulties of the 
Continental Congress, once it had thrown 
down the gage of battle to England, was 
to establish a naval force which, if it could 
not compete with the dominant country, 
then, as now, the greatest maritime power 
in the world, might, at least, annoy her 
merchantmen, cut off her communications, 
and, in detail, capture her lighter-armed 
vessels. The colonists, from their frequent 
encounters with the Indians and French, 
were accustomed to the use of arms, and 
familiar with all the devices and ^^ dodges" 
of warfare on land, but on the ocean they 
were perfectly helpless. England mono- 
polized the carrying trade between the 
colonies and herself, and nearly every cap- 
tain in her merchant navy was bound to 

13 



194 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

her, not only by ties of self-interest, but by 
that prejudice against, and contempt for, the 
colonists, which first led to unjust taxation, 
and then to a long and inglorious war. 

There were, however, some exceptions. 
Notably amongst them, was one John Barry, 
a native of the county of Wexford, in Ire- 
land, who, at the breaking out of the Eevo- 
lutionary war, was in command of the finest 
packet-ship that sailed across the Atlantic, 
to and from the American shores. Barry 
was born in 1745, of a race of sailors, and 
took to the water as naturally as would 
a young du.ck. At fifteen years of age, he 
entered the merchant service, and at 
twenty-three, he was captain of a full- 
rigged ship, the "" Black Prince." While 
in this capacity, he met Washington 
at the house of a mutual friend, and, 
though neither at the time could possibly 
have foreseen the destiny in store for them, 
the acquaintance soon ripened into mutual 
respect and friendship. Towards the end 
of 1775, when Congress commenced to take 
active measures to form the nucleus of a 



COMMODORE JOHN BARRY. 195 

national navy, it, doubtless at the sugges- 
tion of the general-in-chief, entrusted the 
execution of their project to Barry. A few 
merchantmen, then lying in the Delaware, 
were hastily fitted out as men-of-war, and 
the flag-ship, the ^' Lexington," was put 
under Barry ^s orders. To another, the 
*' Alfred," the afterwards celebrated Paul 
Jones was assigned with the rank of lieu- 
tenant. The " Lexington" and the '' Alfred" 
were the first two vessels that hoisted to 
the masthead the '^ Stars and Stripes" which 
has since been proudly borne over every 
known ocean, sea, and harbor, triumphant 
and unsullied. 

Early in the following year, Barry was 
put in command of the frigate ^^ Effingham," 
but, the Delaware being frozen solid, he had 
no opportunity to get to sea. In the mean- 
time, however, he was not idle in the good 
cause ; for, when he could not be of use in 
what may be called his native element, he 
took service on land, and, in the capacity of 
aid to General Cadwallader, did good ser- 
vice at the battle of Trenton. Thouglj, 



196 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

the British took advantage of the sudden 
breaking up of the ice, in the spring of 
1777, Barry, by a system of naval guerilla 
warfare hitherto unknown, annoyed the 
enemy exceedingly, and, with his small 
craft and armed boats, captured many 
transports and supply-ships. For this 
effective service he received the marked 
thanks of Washington, and the title of Com- 
modore from Congress. In the following 
year, he commanded the ^'Eelief," but soon 
after he was ordered to the best vessel in 
the United States service, ^' The Alliance," 
in which he took the American agent to 
France, running the gauntlet through the 
English fleet, which was instructed to cap- 
ture him, his ship, and the gentleman in his 
charge. On his return, he amused himself 
by capturing the ^^ Atalanta" and Trespasa," 
in the same engagement. Though badly 
wounded in this fight, he refused to abandon 
the quarter-deck till his end was accom- 
plished. In 1781, he brought the Marquis 
Lafayette and Count Noailles to France, 
and on his return by the West Indies, 



COMMODORE JOHN BARRY. 197 

he was attacked simultaneously by three 
British frigates. Having been hailed by 
one of them, demanding the name of his ship, 
and that of the captain, he is said to have 
replied, with his usual sang froid: ^^The 
United States ship ^Alliance,' saucy Jack 
Barry, half Irishman, half Yankee: — who 
are j^ou?" So effectually did he belabor 
those men-of-war, that they were glad to 
haul off in a very damaged condition, 
while he pursued his course to these shores 
without further molestation. 

For twenty years after the war, until his 
death, in 1803, Commodore Barry was 
incessantly engaged in superintending the 
construction and equipment of the infant 
navy of America, but, more particularly, in 
training up a class of heroes who, in the sub- 
sequent wars of the United States, with 
France, Algiers, and England, in 1812-15, 
confeiTed the greatest lustre on the United 
States. McDonough, Boyle, Stewart, 
Decatm', and other distinguished officers 
of the navy, were his pupils ; and it was 
from his success in educating them, as 



198 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

much as from his rank and subsequent 
scientific attainments, that he earned the 
proud title among his shipmates of " Father 
of the American Navy." 

The adventures of Paul Jones, who, as 
we have seen, served as first lieutenant in 
Barry's little flotilla, are too popularly 
known to require mention here ; but, while 
all credit should be given to that free-lance 
of the seas for his undaunted courage and 
wonderful tenacity of purpose, we must not 
forget that the crews with which he fought 
and conquered, were made up principally 
of Irishmen. In a Life of Daniel O'Connell, 
recently published, we find the following 
passage relative to the appearance of Jones 
off the Irish coast, and the effect it produced 
on the mind of the child, afterwards to be 
the great emancipator of the Catholics of Ire- 
land, and the friend of civil and religious 
liberty in every part of the world : — 

^' When this daring adventurer encoun- 
tered the British men-of-war," says the 
writer, ^'he laid himself alongside and sunk 
or plundered them in the open seas. Britain 



COMMODORE JOHN BARRY. 199 

rarely encountered a more pertinacious and 
troublesome adversary than this hardy 
Scotchman, whose heroic intrepidity in 
the narrow seas, where he scared the 
British manners, was only to be equalled 
by his gallantry in Parisian salons^ where 
he delighted the French beauty, and was 
feted, flattered, and lionized by the French 
noblesse. On the mind of the rosy child, 
Daniel O'Connell, then only three years 
old, this fierce rover of the surges made a 
fearful and ineffaceable impression. Gram- 
boling at the head of Valentia harbor, that 
noble and capacious estuary, whose deso- 
late waters, unbroken by a keel, were of 
themselves sufficient to inspire his impris- 
oned mind with aversion for the unnatural 
government which neglected it, — the comely 
and ingenuous boy, his golden ringlets 
playing in the wind, beheld with unspeak- 
able interest three men-of-war one day 
looming in the distance or approaching the 
shore. These ships constituted the fleet of 
the privateer. They were commanded by 
the bold adventurer in person, manned, for 



200 IRISH SOLDIEES. 

the most part, by Irisli seamen, and having 
a company of the Irish Brigade, serving as 
marines, on board. Paul Jones had swelled 
the number of his hands by drafts from 
French prisons, where many Irishmen cap- 
tured in war were draining away their lives 
in dreary incarceration." * 

But there were other Irishmen as well as 
Barry, McDonough, and Paul Joneses crews, 
wrestling with the common enemy of 
America and Ireland, on her own peculiar 
element. The first English ship captured 
in the Revolution was the store-ship ^' Mar- 
garita," which was taken in Machias bay, 
by the ^yo hardy sons of Maurice O^Brien 
of Cork. Two armed vessels, the " Tapna- 
quish" and "Diligence," were sent in 1775 
against the rebel village of Machias, but 
they also were captured ; and when a squad- 
ron, consisting of a frigate, a corvette, and 
gun-brig, and several schooners, were de- 
spatched from Halifax to avenge the insult, 
the O'Briens, with their neighbors, drove 

* Life and Times of Daniel O'Connell, &.C., vol. i, 
pp. 19, 20. 



COMMODORE JOHN BARRY. 201 

it ingloriously back. ^'This affair," says 
Fennimore Cooper, in liis ''Naval History 
of tlie United States," ''was the Lexington 
of the seas ; for, hke that celebrated conflict, 
it was the rising of the people against a 
regular force, — was characterized by a long 
chase, a bloody struggle, and a victory. It 
was also the first blow struck on the water 
after the war of the American Revolution 
had actually commenced." 

Those O'Briens seem to have had the 
'^strong weakness" of their race and country 
developed in a remarkable degree. Not 
satisfied with capturing the lighter craft, 
and repulsing the heavy-armed vessels of 
England, they each embarked in new enter- 
prises; and, though some fell fighting for 
their adopted country, and others survived 
the conflict of battle, they were generally 
successful against the enemy, and always 
sans peur ei sans reproche. Two McGees, 
Captains James and Bernard, also distin- 
guished themselves on sea, during the 
Revolutionary war under the national flag, 
as well as many other gallant seamen of 



202 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

Irish birth, whose names are now scarcely 
remembered. 

Thus, ever, whether on land or sea, in 
charging on the enemy with the persuasive 
bayonet, or pouring in a logical broadside, 
the exiled Irish were found true and un- 
flinching in their devotion to the land of their 
adoption, and consistently hostile to the 
power that drove them from their homes, 
endeavored to make their nationality and 
creed a mockery and a scoff, and themselves 
wanderers and outcasts on the face of the 
earth. This long unsettled account with 
England, they and we have been paying by 
instalments, on the continents of Europe 
and America: the final and last ought to 
be paid in Ireland, where the debt was 
originally created. 



THE MEN OF '98. 203 



THE MEN OF '98. 

THE WEXFORD INSURRECTION. 



• 



The county of Wexford, one of the 
thirty-two into which Ireland is divided, 
forms the southeast corner of the island, and 
is as remarkable for its topography as for 
the character and condition of its inhabi- 
tants. Bounded on the east and south by 
the sea, it is almost as effectually segregated 
on the west and north by two mountain- 
chains known in their respective parts as 
the Black Stairs and Mount Leinster, which 
separate it from the county of Carlow and 
the Croghan Mountains between it and 
Wicklow. It is thus formed by nature as 
a most favorable theatre for partisan war- 
fare, and, except the line of the Shannon, 
presents the best^om^ d'appui in the country 
for the operations of an invading or insur- 
rectionary army. 



204 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

The inhabitants are also a peculiar people, 
and, though each section of the county, 
north and south, differs essentially one from 
the other, they are just the people to fight, 
and fight desperately for their rights, when 
*^ patience ceases to be a virtue." The 
river Slaney divides the coitnty into two 
unequal parts. On the right are Bargy 
Forth and some other baronies, the inhabi- 
tants of which are descended from Irish, 
Danes, Normans, and Welsh; and on the 
left are the celebrated Shilmaliers, of pure, 
unadulterated Gaelic blood. The first are 
of small, compact stature, frugal, industrious, 
and money-making, excellent farmers and 
close traders, not prone to anger or easily 
excited, but, when once aroused, difiicult to 
be appeased or intimidated. Their neigh- 
bors, on the contrary, are stalwart, dashing, 
hospitable fellows ; generous and lavish to a 
fault, for whom danger and even death, by 
sea or land, seem to have no terrors, but, on 
the contrary, a positive attraction. 

Such were the people upon whom at the 
close of the last century the English officials 



THE MEN OF '98. 205 

in Ireland undertook to trample, and, for 
tlieir own malign purpose, attempted to 
goad into premature revolt. To effect 
either or both objects, they had at their back 
as pliant, unscrupulous, and cruel a lot of 
tools as ever were handled by a despotic 
and usurping government. The legislative 
independence of the country having been 
wrung from England in 1782, the ministers 
of that power, upon recovering a little 
strength from a temporary cessation of 
hostilities abroad, set to work to undermine 
it, and not only to reduce the Irish Parlia- 
ment to its former state of dependence on 
the " King and Council," but to destroy it 
altogether; a measure which they finally 
earned out eighteen years afterwards. 

These attacks upon the Irish Parliament, 
covert and open, as well as the example of 
our American revolution, led to the forma- 
tion of the secret society known as the 
United Irishmen, the ultimate object of which 
was complete separation from England. It 
at one time numbered about fom- hundred 
thousand members, and had its ramifications 



206 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

through all parts of the country; but 
strange to say, its principles and aims were 
less generally known or encouraged in the 
county of Wexford than in any other part 
of the country. In fact the peasantry and 
farmers, as well as those in a higher sphere 
of life, but of patriotic instincts, as a mass 
were ill-disposed to join an organization 
which required an oath of obedience to 
unknown and irresponsible persons; pre- 
ferring to suffer the present evils in peace 
to encountering others of which they could 
form no clear conception, as long as they 
were allowed to pursue their ordinary 
occupations unmolested, and to worship 
their God undisturbed. 

But they were allowed to do neither. It 
was not the design of the authorities that 
they should ; and consequently the magis- 
trates, the head of the different yeomanry 
corps, and the extra-loyal gentry, set to 
work to drive the people into armed opposi- 
tion to the laws, such as they were. To 
prove their devotion to an alien government, 
they resolved to manufacture an insurrec- 



THE MEN OF '98. 207 

tion, in the suppression of whicli they 
hoped to earn favor and patronage from the 
creatures of Pitt, enthroned in Dublin 
Castle. How well they succeeded, and how 
much blood and slaughter attended their 
efforts, we shall presently see. "" At this 
period of confusion," says Hay, himself a 
*' loyal gentleman," and an eye-witness of 
many of the horrible scenes that followed, 
*' the first public intimation of disturbance 
in the county of Wexford was from a 
meeting of magistrates, held at Grorey on 
the 28th of November, 1797. There the 
proclaiming of sixteen parishes out of one 
hundred and forty-two, of which the 
county consists, was voted by a majority, 
of which my infomiation does not afford me 
the number ; but the measm'e was strongly 
opposed by eight of the magistrates present, 
including Lord Mountnorris, who must be 
naturally supposed to feel substantial rea- 
sons for his opposition to have the part of 
the county proclaimed wherein his property 
principally lay, and it is to be fairly pre- 
smned (whatever ground may be had by 



208 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

some reflecting people for thinking other- 
wise), that his lordship was not influenced, 
on this occasion at least, by motives of 
opposition to Lord Ely, his successful 
rival in the patronage of the county."* 
It was thus, and for such reasons, that the 
lives and liberty of the people were trifled 
with. 

In consequence of this partial proclaim- 
ing, several persons were arrested and pun- 
ished without any color of law, and infor- 
mers began to rise in value. Still, the 
work did not progress fast enough ; so, on 
the 25th of April in the year following, 
twenty-seven magistrates assembled at 
Gorey, and instead of sixteen parishes, pro- 
claimed the whole county. ^^ From this 
period forward," we still quote Hay, ^'many 
magistrates of the county made themselves 
conspicuous in practising the most summary 
means of quieting the county by the inflic- 
tion of all kinds of torture. They seem in- 
deed to have emulated, or rather rivalled, 

* History of the Irish Insurrection of 1798, &c. By 
Edward Hay. 



THE MEN OF '98. 209 

the conduct of the magistrates of the coun- 
ties who had made trial of the salutary 
effects of persecution somewhat sooner. . . . 
They soon fell to burning houses wherein 
pikes or other offensive weapons were dis- 
covered, no matter how brought there. 
But they did not stop here, for the dwell- 
ings of suspected persons, and those from 
which any of the inhabitants were found 
to be absent at night, were also consumed. 
... In Enniscorthy, Ross, and Gorey, sev- 
eral persons were not only put to the tor- 
ture in the usual manner, but a greater 
number of houses were burnt, and measures 
of tlie strongest coercion were practised, 
altliough the people continued to flock to 
different magistrates for protection. Mr. 
Perry, of Inch, a Protestant gentleman, 
was seized on and brought a prisoner to 
Gorey, guarded by the North Cork militia ; 
one of whom — the sergeant nicknamed 
Tom the Devil — gave him woeful experience 
of his ingenuity and adroitness at devising 
torment. As a specimen of his savoirfaire, 
he cut off the hair of his head very closely, 

14 



210 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

cut the sign of the cross from the front to 
the back, and transversely from ear to ear, 
still closer ; and, probably a pitched cap not 
being in readiness, gunpowder was mixed 
through the hair, which was then set on 
fire, and the shocking process repeated un- 
til every atom of hair that remained could 
be easily pulled out by the roots ; and still 
a burning candle was continually applied, 
until the entire was completely singed 
away, and the head left totally and miser- 
ably blistered ! At Carnew, things were 
carried to still greater length; for, inde- 
pendent of burning, whipping, and torture 
in all shapes, on Friday, the 25th of May, 
twenty-eight prisoners were brought out of 
their place of confinement, and deliberately 
shot in a ball-alley, by the yeomen and a 
party of the Antrim militia; the infernal 
deed being sanctioned by the presence of 
their ofiicers ! Many of the men thus in- 
humanly butchered, had been confined on 
mere suspicion ! ! ! " 

But, as if such acts of barbarity were 
not considered sufficient to drive any 



THE MEN OF '98. 211 

human beings to desperation, a new element 
was introduced into the foul conspiracy. 
The North Cork militia, about four hundred 
in number, under tlie infamous Kings- 
borough, a second Kirke, were sent to the 
town of Wexford, and with them were 
brought the fooleries necessary to estab- 
lish an Orange Lodge, the first ever known 
in that well-conditioned and peaceable city. 
This body had been recruited from the 
worst class of the community in the south 
of Ireland — Orange weavers from Bandon 
and the neighborhood, and the bastard sons 
of fathers just as illegitimate. They were 
cruel and cowardly, and it is hard to deter- 
mine in which quality they most excelled, 
whether in running away at the slightest 
rumor of danger, or in butchering the weak 
and helpless, the defenceless woman or the 
puling babe. It is no exaggeration to say 
that their victims, during two or three 
months of the summer of 1798, must 
have numbered thousands, and their mem- 
ory is as deeply execrated in Wexford 
to this day as it was three-quarters of a 



212 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

century ago. Beside them tlie Hessians 
were paragons of humanity and mercy. 

The desired result at length came — an 
armed insurrection, but neither in the man- 
ner nor form expected. The miscreants of 
the North Cork miHtia and the pHant instru- 
ments of the so-called loyal magistrates 
were about to receive their j&rst lesson. 
The men of Shilmalier tooks up arms, and 
resolved to suffer no longer the unheard-of 
tyranny of the magistrates and Orangemen. 
On Whitsunday, the 27th of April, Mr. 
Turner appeared in the town of Wexford 
with information that a rising had taken 
place, and that the indignant peasantry were 
assembled at Oulart Hill, a place about two 
miles from the town. Instantly every thing 
was in motion. The mamate of the Eng*- 
lish law had at length succeeded in rousing 
the people to action, and the North Cork, 
which had hitherto expended its renown in 
burning isolated chapels, and murdering in 
detail, now saw a hope of putting these 
devices into practice on a larger scale. 
Accordingly, an expedition was fitted out 



THE MEN OF '98. 213 

to massacre the men who dared to assemble 
at Oulart, consisting of cavalry under the 
command of Colonel Le Hunt, and a detach- 
ment of the valiant North Cork, numbering 
one hundi'ed and ten men, under the charge 
of Colonel Foote. Loud were the boasts, 
and high were the hopes of this force when 
they left Wexford to disperse the ignorant 
rabble of Shilmalier, but they reckoned 
without their host. On coming in sight of 
the rebel position, the cavalry endeavored 
to take the insurgents in the rear so as to 
cut off their retreat, but, unfortunately for 
themselves, they were taken in front, and at 
the first fire totally demoralized, dispersed, 
and so frightened, that they never drew 
rein till they were again within the defences 
of Wexford. In the meanwhile the Orange- 
men of the North Cork, whose valor had 
been almost expended in burning chapels, 
and torturinof the unoffendinof inhabitants 
in the vicinity of their posts, hesitated to 
attack the men on Oulart, however indiff- 
erently armed. Foote was in favor of 
retreating, but Major Lombard, who seems 



214 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

to have had some little courage left, advised 
an attack, alleging that the rebels '^ would 
fly at their approach." The attack was 
accordingly made. Two rounds were fired 
by the Orangemen, when, like a pent-up 
torrent that had at length burst its barrier, 
the Irish were upon them, and swept them 
away like so much drift-wood. Lombard 
the hero, Captain de Courcy, Lieutenants 
Williams, Warre, Barry, and Keogh, were 
killed, and ^4n short," says Hay, ^^ none 
escaped except Colonel Foote, a sergeant 
(who mounted the major's horse), a drummer, 
and two privates " — five out of one hundred 
and ten ! A more complete victory, consider- 
ing the numbers engaged, we venture to say 
is not on the record of history. The insur- 
gents had but five men killed and two 
wounded. 

The defeated cavalry, as well as the other 
detachments which had been sent out to 
burn houses and slay the unresisting, re- 
treated in consternation on Wexford, where 
a most ludicrous scene of panic and cow- 
ardice was exhibited. The Orangemen of 



THE MEN OF '98. 215 

the North Cork got under arms, and were 
actually en route to avenge the death of 
their comrades, when they were dissuaded 
from so rash a step '' by some gentlemen." 
What were the arguments used we are not 
informed, but, from the previous and subse- 
quent conduct of that organization, we are 
inclined to think that it did not require 
much logic or eloquence to deter them from 
confronting the victors of Oulart. 

This fight took place on the 27th of May, 
and on the 28th the insurgents, flushed with 
victory, marched on Enniscorthy, then the 
second place in importance in the county. 
Their route lay by ruined chapels and burn- 
ing houses, for it seems that the yeomen 
and militia cavalry had been out raiding 
the two previous days on their usual 
mission of fire and slaughter ; all they met 
in ^lored clothes they deliberately mur- 
dered, and every house they came to they 
burned, in many cases with the inhabitants 
inside. Such sights were well calculated to 
arouse anew the indignation and vengeance 
of the people ; and when they came in view 



216 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

of the town, it was resolved to assault and 
take it at all hazards. Enniscortliy was 
defended by part of the North Cork under 
Captain Soume, detachments of infantry 
commanded by Cornock and Pownden, and 
Ogle's and Richard's cavalry, all well armed, 
equipped, and supplied with ammunition. 
In this respect they had greatly the advan- 
tage of the insurgents, who had very little 
powder and only a few muskets and duck- 
ing-guns, their principal arms being rude 
pikes and stable-forks. 

The assault lasted about four hours, and 
ended with ^the partial destruction and 
complete capture of the town. The rebels 
approached it, driving before them large 
herds of cattle, advice probably suggested 
by some classic philomath; and having 
almost surrounded it, they drove the enemy 
from street to street, and from one strong 
position to another until finally they were 
obliged to retreat pell-mell, and take the 
road to Wexford. '' The military in their 
retreat," says Hay, ^'were very confused at 
first ; however, self-preservation urged their 



THE MEN OF ^98. 217 

keeping together, suggested by a private in 
the yeomanry. Officers had been induced 
to tear off tlieir epaulets and every other 
mark that could distinguish them from the 
privates, considering themselves in more 
danger if they were recognized as officers." 

The capture of Enniscorthy was a bold 
stroke, as it occupied a commanding position 
on the Slaney, and gave the insurgents 
undisturbed possession of Vinegar Hill, a 
prominent eminence in the neighborhood. 
The loss on the part of the assailants has 
not been accurately computed ; but, of the 
defeated, a captain, two lieutenants, and 
nearly a hundred men fell before the fierce 
attacks of the half-araied Shilmaliers. 

The news of the surrender of Ennis- 
corthy added to the consternation of the 
Wexford garrison, now consisting of about 
fourteen hundred men, including two hun- 
dred citizen volunteers, with some pieces 
of artillery, and a plentiful supply of 
munitions of every description. The fact, 
also, that the massive old walls and castles 
by which the town was smTounded in 



218 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

ancient times, were, and are still, stanclin^^ 
(except where thrown down to allow for the 
extension of streets to the newer parts of 
the city), rendered the positions almost 
impregnable to a tumultuous gathering of 
peasants without system, discipline, leader, 
or cannon. The cowardice of its defenders, 
however, particularly of the North Cork, 
who feared to meet the outraged people, 
even with all the advantages on their side, 
rendered all the natural defences of the 
place worthless. 

Meanwhile many of the good people of 
the town, doubting the gallantry of their 
defenders, and fearing the wrath of the 
peasantry for their loyalty and adherence 
to the troops, hastened to pack up their 
effects and go aboard the vessels in the 
harbor, with the intention of escaping as 
soon as possible, while the Orangemen 
proposed as a necessary measure of defence 
that all the patriotic prisoners in the jail 
should be put to death ! This proposal, 
though advocated even by many of their 
officers, was rejected by the majority from 



THE MEN OF '98. 219 

a wholesome dread of reprisals on the 
part of the rebels ; and a couple of the most 
influential of the imprisoned gentlemen 
were temporarily liberated and sent to 
Vinegar Hill, to endeavor to induce the 
insurgents to disperse. This mission, how- 
ever, had a contrary effect. They were, it 
is said, about to disperse, having, as they 
supposed, taught the government troops a 
salutary lesson ; but the advent of envoys 
from Wexford, which had been considered 
too strong to be attacked, revealed to them 
the enemy's weakness. Instead of separat- 
ing therefore, they immediately marched 
towards the town, retaining one messenger, 
and sending the other back to announce 
their intention of attacking the city itself 

This cartel, it may be supposed, did not 
tend to allay the fears of either the towns- 
folk or the garrison. The ships were 
brought into greater requisition than ever, 
the fortifications were strengthened, and the 
jail crowded with the suspected. An event 
which occurred on the 30th of May, did not 
diminish the general apprehension. 



220 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

On the day previous, General Fawcett 
sallied out from the fort of Duncannon 
with the intention of reinforcing Wexford, 
having ordered his troops to follow, and 
getting as far as Taghmon, quietly went to 
bed, while waiting for his advanced guard 
to come up! The guard, consisting of 
Captain Adams and seventy men, and 
Lieutenant Burch with two howitzers, ar- 
rived there in the night, but not finding 
the general or the rest of the troops, kept 
on towards the menaced city. The insur- 
gents in the meanwhile had marched from 
Enniscorthy, and taken post on the moun- 
tains of Forth at a place called Three Eocks, 
about three miles from Wexford, and com- 
manding the approach to it from the south- 
west. Adams, on the morning of the 30th, 
advanced along the mountain road in igno- 
rance of the rebel position, but he had 
scarcely come in sight of their pickets, 
when the main body was upon him, and a 
short, bloody, and decisive struggle en- 
sued. His magazine was blown up, his guns 
captured, and himself and all his force 



THE MEN OF ^98. 221 

destroyed, except one lieutenant and six- 
teen privates who were taken prisoners. 
Those '^98 men," when in their senses, 
had a complete method of disposing of 
their enemies. Fawcett, and the remainder 
of his troops, which had marched on Tagh- 
mon the same day, on hearing of this 
disaster, hastily retreated to Duncannon, 
and did not feel himself safe till within its 
strong walls. 

A sally was also made about the same 
time from the town by Colonel Watson, 
at the head of two hundred infantry and 
five cavalry corps, with no better success. 
They advanced within sight of the insur- 
gents, when Watson, who it appears was 
no better general than Fawcett, advancing 
some distance before his men to reconnoitre, 
was shot dead by one of the rebel pickets. 
This was enough for his troops ; they pre- 
cipitately fell back on the town, where the 
news of all those reverses produced the 
greatest depression. We will let Mr. Hay, 
who was there at the time, and, though 
being a Catholic, always acted as a strong 



222 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

supporter of the government, describe the 
scenes that ensued : — 

^^A general and gloomy consternation 
now prevailed ; every countenance appear- 
ed clouded and distrustful, and every per- 
son was circumspect how he spoke or act- 
ed, as all confidence was entirely done 
away, and each individual thought only of 
his own personal safety. Some yeomen and 
supplementaries, who during the whole of 
the morning had been stationed in the street, 
opposite the jail, were heard continually to 
threaten to put all the prisoners to death, 
which so roused the attention of the jailer 
to protect his charge, that he barricaded the 
door, and on hearing of a surrender, to 
manifest more strongly the sincerity of his 
intentions, he delivered up the key to Mr. 
Harvey. This gentleman was, indeed, so 
apprehensive of violence, that he had 
climbed up inside a chimney, where he had 
lain concealed a considerable time, when 
some gentlemen called upon him, but could 
not gain admittance until they gave the 
strongest assurances of their pacific inten- 



THE MEN OF '98. 22 



o 



tions. Upon being admitted at length, they 
still found him up the chimney, and while 
so situated, entreated him to go out to the 
camp of the insurgents, and announce to 
them the surrender of the town, on condi- 
tion that lives and properties should be 
spared. Mr. Harvey made answer, that as 
the insurgents on the Three Rocks were not 
from his neighborhood, and as he was not 
himself at all known to them, he imagined 
he could have no kind of influence with them; 
adding, they might possibly consider him 
even as an enemy. He was then requested to 
write to them, which he declared himself 
willing to do in any manner that might be 
judged most advisable. When he had thus 
consented, it became a task of no little diffi- 
culty to bring him out of his lurking-place, 
as in the descent his clothes were gathered 
up about his shoulders, so that it required 
good assistance to pull him out of the chim- 
ney by the heels. When he had arranged 
his apparel, and adjusted liimself so as to 
put off the appearance of a chimney- 
sweeper, about two hours before the troops 



224 IRISH SOLDIEKS. 

retreated from "Wexford, Right Hon. George 
Ogle, captain of the ShihuaHer infantry ; 
Cornehus Grogan ; John Grogan, captain 
of the Heathfield cavahy; James Boyd, 
captain of the Wexford cavalry ; Solomon 
Richards, captain of the Enniscorthy cav- 
alry ; Isaac Cornock, captain of the Scara- 
walsh infantry ; and Edward Turner of the 
Shilma^lier cavalry — all magistrates — along 
with Lieutenant-Colonel Colville of the 
thirteenth regiment of foot, and Lieutenant- 
Colonel Foote of the North Cork militia, 
visited Mr. Harvey in the jail, and at their 
express request, he wrote the following 
notice to the insurgents on the moiintain of 
Forth:— 

^' ' I have been treated in prison with all possible 
humanity, and am now at liberty. I have procured the 
liberty of all the prisoners. If you pretend to Christian 
charity, do not commit massacre, or burn the property 
of the inhabitants, and spare your prisoners' lives. 

" ' B. B: Haryey. 

" ^ Wednesday/, 30th Mai/, 1798.' 

^' This note was undertaken to be for- 
warded by I^oyle, a yeoman of the 



THE MEN OF '98. 225 

Heathfield cavalry, who offered to volun- 
teer on this hazardous service, when the 
proposal was made to his corps by Captain 
John Grogan. He had the precaution to 
put off his uniform, and to dress himself in 
colored clothes ; but when ready to set off, 
he was discovered to be a Roman Catholic, 
and therefore reflected upon, for so the 
whisper went about, ^ Hotv could a pajnst he 
trusted f ' The yeoman, finding his zeal 
meet with a reception so contrary to his 
expectation, again put on his uniform and 
retrerited with his captain ; thus proving 
himself to the full as loyal as any of those 
who on the occasion displayed their illiber- 
ality, which even common policy, it might 
be well imagined, should repress at so 
critical a juncture. Dr. Jacob then pro- 
posed the enterprise to his corps, and 
Counsellor Richards, with his brother Mr. 
Loftus Richards, were appointed to go out 
to the Three Rocks on this expedition, to 
announce the surrender of the town to 
the insurgents, whose camp they reached 
in safety, though clad in full uniform. 

15 



226 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Scarcely had these deputies set out upon 
their mission, when all the military corps, 
a part of one only excepted, made the best 
of their way out of the town. Every in- 
dividual corps of them seemed to partake 
of a general panic, and set off whithersoever 
they imagined they could find safety, with- 
out €ven acquainting their neighbors on 
duty of their intentions. The principal 
inhabitants, whose services had been ac- 
cepted of for the defence of the town, were 
mostly Catholics, and, according to the pre- 
valent system, were subject to the greatest 
insults and reflections. They were also 
placed in front of the posts, and cautioned 
to behave well, or that death should be the 
consequence. Accordingly, persons were 
placed behind them to keep them to their 
duty, and these were so watchful of their 
charge, that they would not even permit 
them to turn about their heads; and yet 
these determined heroes were the very first 
to run off on the apprehended approach of 
real danger. Thus were the armed in- 
habitants left at their posts, abandoned by 



THE MEN OF ^98. 227 

their officers, and actually ignorant of the 
flight of the soldiery, until the latter had 
been miles out of the town, and were there- 
fore left no possible means of retreating. 
Lieutenant William Hughes of the Wexford 
infantry, with a few of his corps, was, it 
seems, the only part of the miHtary left 
uninformed of the intended retreat, and this 
was owing to his being detached with these 
few 3^eomen to defend a distant part of the 
town- wall, and he and they were apprised 
of their situation, as were also the armed 
inhabitants, only by the approach of the 
insurgents ; so that Mr. Hughes and his 
few 3^eomen, together with the armed in- 
habitants, are the only people that can be 
said not to have abandoned their posts in 
Wexford on this occasion. The confusion 
and dismay which prevailed were so great, 
as no kind of signal for retreat had been 
given, that officers and privates ran pro- 
miscuously through the town, threw off 
their unifonns, and hid themselves wher- 
ever they thought they could be best con- 
cealed. Some ran to the different quays, 



228 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

in expectation of finding boats to convey 
them off, and threw their arms and ammuni- 
tion into the water. All such as could 
accomplish it embarked on board the 
vessels in the harbor, having previously 
turned their horses loose. Some ran to the 
jail to put themselves under the protection 
of Mr. Harvey. Officers, magistrates, and 
yeomen of every description thus severally 
endeavored to escape popular vengeance ; 
and in the contrivance of changing apparel, 
as there was not a sufficiency of men's clothes 
at hand for all those who sought safety by 
this means, female attire was substituted 
for the purpose of disguise. In short, it is 
impossible that a greater appearance of 
confusion, tumult, or panic could be at all 
exhibited. The North Cork regiment, on 
quitting the barracks, set them on fire, 
which, however, was immediately put out. 
Lieutenants Bowen and Paye, witli Ensign 
Harman, and some sergeants and privates 
of this regiment, remained in the town. 

''It has been ah-eady observed, that 
thousands of people were seen to assemble 



THE MEN OF '98. 229 

during" the entire morning, on a hill over 
Ferrybank, marching and countermarch- 
ing in hostile appearance, and seemingly, 
waiting only for the moment that the town 
would be abandoned by the military, to 
take possession of it themselves ; but their 
entrance, when this took place, was retard- 
ed, until boards were procm-ed to supply 
the place of the flooring of the wooden 
bridge where it had been bm-nt. In the 
meantime, Messrs. Richards, after having 
run great risk, arrived at the camp at 
Thi'ee Rocks, and made known that they 
were deputed to inform the people that the 
town of Wexford would be surrendered to 
them on condition of sparing lives and prop- 
erties : these terms would not be complied 
with, unless the arms and ammunition of 
the garrison were also surrendered. Mr. 
Loftus Richards was therefore detained as 
a hostage, and Counsellor Richards and 
Mr. Fitzgerald were sent back to the town, 
to settle and arrange the articles of capitu- 
lation; but these gentlemen, on then- arrival, 
to their great astonishment, found the place 



230 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

abandoned by the military. The bridge 
being at this time nearly made passable, the 
vast concourse of people that had collected 
at the other side of the Slaney, was just 
ready to pour in and take unconditional 
possession of the town. It was therefore 
necessary to treat with these (it being yet 
unknown who they were), in order to pre- 
vent the mischiefs likely to ensue from such 
a tumultuary influx of people. Doctor 
Jacob, then mayor of the town and captain 
of the Wexford infantry, therefore entreated 
Mr. Fitzgerald to move towards the bridge, 
and announce to the people rushing in that 
the town was surrendered ; and to use every 
other argument that his prudence might 
suggest, to make their entry as peaceable 
as possible. Mr. Fitzgerald complied; and 
instantly after this communication thou- 
sands of people poured into the town over 
the wooden bridge, shouting and exhibiting 
all marks of extravagant and victorious ex- 
ultation. They first proceeded to the jail, 
released all the prisoners, and insisted that 
Mr. Harvey should become their com- 



THE MEN OF '98. 231 

mander. All tlie houses in town not aban- 
doned by the inhabitants, now became 
decorated with green boughs, or green 
ornaments of one description or another. 
The doors were universally thrown open, 
and the most liberal offers made of spirits 
and drink of every kind, which, however, 
were not as freely accepted, until the per- 
sons offering had first drunk themselves, as 
a proof that the liquor was not poisoned, a 
report having prevailed to that effect ; and 
which was productive of this good conse- 
quence, that it prevented rapid intoxication, 
and of course, in the beginning, lamentable 
excesses. 

"The insm'gents having now got com- 
plete possession of the town of Wexford, 
many persons who had been yeomen, after 
having thrown off their uniforms, affected 
a cordial welcome for them, and endeavored, 
by an exhibition of all the signs and em- 
blems of the United Irishmen, to convince 
them of their sincere friendship ; and it is 
indeed not a little remarkable, that many 
of those who, in this change of affairs, 



232 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

boldly marched out as occasion demanded, 
to meet the king's forces, now display them- 
selves as stanch Orangemen of unimpeach- 
able loyalty. Almost every person in the 
town threw open their doors with offers of re- 
freshment and accommodation to the insur- 
gents ; and the few who did not, suffered by 
plunder, their substance being considered 
as enemy's property. Some of all descrip- 
tions, indeed, suffered in their property by 
plunder, on deserting their houses, and leav- 
ing none to protect or take care of them. 
The house of Captain Boyd was a singular 
exception. It was, though not deserted, 
pillaged, and exhibited marks of the hatred 
and vengeance of the people." 

This cowardly abandonment of Wexford 
was witnessed by the insurgent army from 
their camp on the Three Rocks, which 
commands a very extensive view of the 
surrounding country, and the line of retreat 
was marked as usual with conflagrations 
and cruelty. The North Cork, as it was 
the first to run away, was, also, the most 
active in the diabolical work of death and 



THE MEN OF ^98. 233 

destruction. We remember in our youth 
to have heard, on those same Tlu-ee Rocks, 
the story of that day from a venerable 
farmer, who had, as he proudly said, borne 
the pike during that memorable period. He 
told us, when asked why he took part in the 
^'rising," that from the spot on which we 
stood, he saw at one glance no less than 
seven chapels in flames fired by the run- 
away Orangemen. 

Such sights naturally inflamed the minds 
of the already excited and now triumphant 
people, and rushing into Wexford, it was 
with great difficulty that they could be 
restrained from retaliating on the persons 
and property of such of the inhabitants as 
were known to have entertained and en- 
couraged the miscreants who had deserted 
them. A few houses, indeed, were sacked, 
and three or four persons lost their lives in 
street broils ; but, considering the greatness 
of the provocation, and the laxity of disci- 
pline among an unorganized mass of 
peasants and farmers, the forbearance and 
humanity displayed by them in tlieh- hour 



234 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

of victory, was wonderful. A regular sys- 
tem of order was introduced ; posts, guards 
and patrols were established with an effort 
at military regularity, which shows that 
though without a leader or an officer of 
any actual experience, the natural aptitude 
for martial duties, which is so characteris- 
tic of the Irish, the most warlike people in 
Europe, renders them equal to almost any 
emergency. 

The town was divided into wards, each 
of which had a company of armed men, 
under the command of the military governor, 
Captain Keough. Three old cannon were 
planted on the dilapidated fort of Roslare, 
conmianding the entrance into the harbor, 
and an embryo navy in the shape of four 
oyster-boats, each containing twenty-five 
men, was established, and sent outside the 
bay to cruise for prizes. As Wexford has 
always been remarkable for her hardy sea- 
men, this unique fleet was, for the time being, 
a complete success, and many captures use- 
ful to the insurgents were effected. Arms 
and powder were a great desideratum, for 



THE MEN OF '98. 235 

tlie supply was nearly exhausted, and only 
three small casks of the latter were found in 
the town upon its occupation. Efforts were 
therefore made to manufacture it, but, from 
want of proper materials, or defective skill, 
the attempt failed. 

The town thus secured, and a permanent 
camp having been established at Vinegar 
Hill, as the most central point in the coun- 
ty, the army of Wexford, as it came to be 
called, after having compelled Beaucamp 
Bagnal Harvey, a very popular, but by no 
means revolutionary gentleman, to become 
their commander-in-chief, separated into 
two parts. One proceeded towards Tagh- 
mon, while the Shilmaliers set out for Gorey, 
on the north, in the neighborhood of which 
the yeomen and Orangemen had been per- 
petrating their accustomed atrocities. At 
their approach those gentry fled with all 
haste into the town, where it at first appear- 
ed that they would make a stand. Not- 
withstanding their numbers, however, be- 
fore the insurgents had approached within 
sight, they incontinently fled to Ai'klow, in 



236 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

the adjoining county, — the North Cork 
under Lieutenant Swayne leading the 
retreatj of course. 

On the 1st of June, this body and an 
independent band of insurgents met some 
reverses at Newtownbarry and Ballyca- 
now, but nothing to dampen their ardor or 
check their progress. Gorey was evacuat- 
ed by the royahsts on the 28th of May, but, 
as the insurgents did not advance farther 
than the hill of Carrickgrew, it was reoc- 
cupied four days afterwards. 

" On the 3d of June, General Loftus ar- 
rived there, with fifteen hundred men under 
his command, as did also Colonel Walpole, 
from Carnew, whence he had several times 
gone out to reconnoitre the camp at Camck- 
grew. A determination was formed to at- 
tack this on the 4th, with the force then in 
Gorey, with which the troops from Carew 
and Newtownbarry were to cooperate, so as 
to engage the insurgents on all sides ; and 
from these arrangements, and considering 
the force that was to act against them, little 
doubt was entertained of their total and 



THE MEN OF '98. 237 

speedy defeat. The army from Gorey 
marched out at the appointed time, and 
formed into two divisions; the one under 
General Loftus took the route towards 
Ballycanew, while the other, commanded 
by Colonel Walpole, proceeded by the 
Camolin road directly, to commence the 
concerted attack on Carrickgrew. The in- 
surgents had, however, quitted this post, 
and were in full march towards Gorey, 
when they suddenly and unawares fell in 
with the military body under Colonel 
Walpole, at a place called Tubberneering. 

^^ The meeting was equally unexpected 
on both sides ; and this circumstance, no 
less true than extraordinary, neither party 
having scouts, produced an instantaneous 
and confused action, in which Colonel Wal- 
pole was killed, in a few minutes after its 
commencement, and his troops immediately 
gave way, and fled in the utmost precipita- 
tion and disorder, leaving the victors in 
possession of three pieces of cannon, two 
six-pounders, and another of inferior size. 
The fate of this action was so quickly 



238 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

decided, as to allow General Loftus not the 
smallest opportunity of affording the troops 
under Colonel Walpole any assistance. 
The loss of the military in killed and 
wounded was considerable, besides Cap- 
tain M'Manus, Lieutenant Hogg, and En- 
sign Barry, of the Antrim militia, with 
many privates, taken prisoners. The rest in 
the greatest possible haste, being pursued 
by the insurgents, reached Grorey, which 
they as quickly passed through ; but they 
would, in revenge, have put the prisoners 
in the town to death, had they not feared 
^^^ that the delay it wo^ld occasion might cost 
them too dearly. This account I have 
from a captain of yeomanry, who opposed 
with all his might the perpetration of such 
a cruel and barbarous deed, and who, to 
his honor, was incapable of countenancing 
such an atrocity under any circumstance. 
The retreat was thence very precipitate 
to Arklow, where a council of war was 
hastily held, at which it was as hastily 
determined to abandon that town, and this 
was accordingly put into execution. Some 



THE MEN OF '98. 239 

were so panic-struck, that they did not 
stop till they reached Dublin ; but others 
stopped at different distances, when their 
horses or themselves were not able to pro- 
ceed farther. General Loftus, on hear- 
ing the report of the cannon and other fire- 
arms in the engagement, not being able to 
go across the country, proceeded round by 
the road to the scene of action, where he 
found the bodies of many slain, and did 
not learn the fate of Colonel Walpole till 
he saw him stretched on the field of battle. 
He then moved towards Gorey, but thought 
it most prudent to alter his line of direction 
upon being saluted by the insm-gents with 
the cannon they had just taken, and which 
they had drawn up to the summit of 
the hill of Gorey, which is immediately 
over the town, commanding it in every 
quarter. The general then marched to 
Carnew and from thence to Tulow, in the 
county of Carlo w." * 

The whole of the county of Wexford 
was now in possession of the insm-gents, 

* Hay's History. 



240 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

except the fort of Duncannon and the town 
of New Ross on the Barrow river, and 
thither the column that had marched from 
Wexford to Taghmon and thence to Carrick- 
byrne, proceeded on the 4th of June, and 
halted at Corbet Hill, about a mile and a 
half outside the town. The garrison of 
Ross at this time consisted of over twelve 
hundred men, exclusive of the yeomen, all 
commanded by Major- General Johnson. 
To this officer, Bagnal Plarvey, on the 
morning of the 5th, sent a written demand 
for the surrender of the place, but his 
messenger, as he approached the outposts 
of the royalists, was shot dead, which so 
excited the insurgents that, contrary to 
orders, one of the three parties who were to 
assail the town simultaneously, rushed 
forward, and, as might have been expected, 
was repulsed with severe loss, and so dis- 
heartened that it scattered in all directions, 
and prematurely spread the news of the 
defeat of the entire insurgent army. Thus 
the first attack was defeated through a 
want of discipline and obedience on the 



THE MEN OF '98. 241 

part of the men, and of determination and 
self-control on that of the persons acting as 
their officers, — defeats incident to all popular 
risings, but, in this case, fatal to the hopes 
and interests of the people's cause. The 
other columns assaulted the portions of the 
defences assiofned to them with better sue- 
cess.« They drove the enemy from the 
walls and ditches, resisted and defeated the 
5th dragoons which charged them fre- 
quently, captured the Three-Bullet gate, 
cleared the streets, and finally forced the 
government troops over the bridge and 
across the river into the county of Kil- 
kenny. But, unfortunately, what valor won 
was lost by misconduct. Instead of pm-- 
suing the enemy, they abandoned them- 
selves to the pleasures of intoxication, and 
so, scattered and demoralized, they were 
driven out of the town in turn by the 
troops, who seeing their condition, rallied 
and recrossed the Barrow. 

Stung by this defeat, the insurgents re- 
formed, and again assailed tlie town, and 
this time the struggle was more desperate 

16 



242 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

and prolonged. " The intrepidity of the 
insurgents," observes Hay, " was truly 
remarkable, as, notwithstanding the dread- 
ful havoc made in their ranks by the 
artillery, they rushed up to the very 
mouths of the cannon, regardless of the 
numbers that were falling on all sides 
of them, and pushed forward with such 
impetuosity that they obliged the army 
to retire once more and leave the town 
to themselves." Undeterred by the lesson 
of the morning, no sooner had the enemy 
been driven out, than the former scenes 
of disorder and dissipation were repeated, 
and the consequence was that the army 
again reentered, and the insurgents were 
a second time compelled to fall back. A 
third attempt was made to win the prize 
they had twice so heedlessly lost, but in 
vain; they were defeated with great loss 
and obliged to retreat to Carrickbyrne. 
Their total loss on this day could not have 
been less than one thousand, while that of 
the troops is set down at two hundred and 
thirty, including Lord Mountjoy, colonel 



THE MEN OF '98. 243 

of the Dublin militia, and several officers 
of rank. Among the insurgents, the prin- 
cipal one who fell was Jolm Kielly of 
Killean, an enthusiastic, intelligent, and 
gallant patriot. 

The battle of Ross was the tiu^ning point 
in the insurrection; and though successful 
in several subsequent skirmishes, the for- 
tunes of the insurgents waned, and finally- 
died out in blood and terror. Had they 
but been as prudent as brave, and held the 
town when in their power, there can be no 
doubt that the people of the neighboring 
counties would have taken up arms en 
masse-, in fact, in Kilkenny, Carlo w, and 
Wicklow, they had partially done so, and 
the insurrection would have become general 
at least in the south and southeast of Ire- 
land. But the defeat at Ross intimidated 
the adjoining counties; and Wexford left 
to herself, was soon surrounded by at least 
twenty thousand government troops, which 
there was no necessity for employing else- 
where. The repulse at Arklow on the 9 th 
of June, the retreat from Lacken Hill on the 



244 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

19th, the disaster at FooFs Mill the day- 
following, and the battle of Enniscorthy on 
the 21st, may be said to have closed the 
"rebellion" in that part of the island. 
Some of the msurgents found their way into 
Carlo w, Kilkenny, Wicklow, and Meath, 
still fighting to the last, but with no other 
end or object than to avoid the scaffold and 
sell their lives as dearly as possible, till 
worn out and exhausted, the remnant sur- 
rendered to General Dundas, on condition 
that they and their leaders should be at 
liberty "to retire whither they pleased out- 
side the British dominions." 

We pass over in silence the scenes of 
rapine, bloodshed, and judicial murder, 
which followed the reestablishment of the 
English power in that devoted county, as 
too horrible even for contemplation. Such 
unheard-of cruelty, such unmitigated acts 
of barbarity as were practised by the judges, 
officers, yeomen, Orangemen, and Hessians, 
are without a parallel in the annals of any 
other country in Christendom, save, perhaps, 
in Ireland herself in the days of Elizabeth 



THE MEN OF '98. 245 

and Cromwell. Even the French Revolu- 
tion does not afford such instances of coarse, 
brutal, and demoniacal ferocity. Innocent 
and guilty, youth and age, delicate women 
and robust men, priest and peasant, — 
all suffered and were tortured alike. In 
glancing over this period we have quoted 
largely from Hay's History; not only 
because his is the most impartial narrative 
of the dire events of '98 written, but, as 
he was personally cognizant of most of 
the doings on both sides, and withal well 
affected to the government of the day, he 
cannot be accused of partiality to the 
people. His statements of the conduct of 
the com'ts-martial established to try the 
insurgents, and of the acts of wholly un- 
authorized individuals, are simply revolting. 
Even the Rev. Mr. Gordon, a Protestant, 
whose animus may be judged by the terms 
he employs, is forced to acknowledge some 
cases of rank injustice. Of the trial and 
execution of Father Redmond, whose only 
offence was that he tried to save Lord 
Mountnon'is's house from pillage, he says : — 



246 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

^^ Of the rebellious conduct of Redmond, 
coadjutor to Father Francis Kavanagh, in 
the parish of Clough, of which I was 
twenty-three years curate, I can find no 
other proof than the sentence of the court- 
martial which consigned him to death. 
He was accused by the Earl of Mountnorris 
of having appeared as chief among a party 
of rebels who committed some depredations 
at his lordship's house, while he alleged 
that his object in appearing on the occasion 
was, to endeavor to prevent the plundering 
of the house, in which he had partly suc- 
ceeded. Coming into Grorey on a message 
from the earl, seemingly unconscious of 
guilt, he was treated as if manifestly guilty 
before trial — ^knocked down in the street, 
and rudely dragged by some yeomen. I 
mean not to arraign the justice of the noble 
lord, his prosecutor, nor the members of 
the court-martial. The former, who had 
rendered himself in no small degree respon- 
sible for the loyalty of the Wexfordian 
Romanists,, had doubtless good reasons for 
his conduct ; and the latter could have no 



THE MEN OF '98. 247 

personal animosity against the accused, nor 
other unfavorable bias than what naturally 
arose from the turbid state of affairs, when 
accusation against a Romish priest was 
considered as a strong presumption of guilt. 
But his Protestant neighbors who had not 
been able to escape from the rebels, assured 
me that, while the latter were in possession 
of the country, he was constantly hiding 
in Protestant houses from the rebels, and 
that many Romanists expressed great re- 
sentment against him as a traitor to their 
cause. That he expected not the rebellion 
to be successful, appears from this, that, 
when the wife of Nathaniel Stedmar (one 
of my Protestant parishioners) applied to 
him to baptize her child, he told her t lat 
he acceded to her request, merely lest the 
child should die unbaptized, in the neces- 
sary absence of her minister, on condition 
that she should promise to make the 
proper apology for him to me on my 
return to the parish." * 

Alluding to this case, Hay adds : — ^' It 

* Gordon's History of the Irish Rebellion, pp. 185, 186. 



248 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

is a melanclioly reflection to think how 
many innocent persons were condemned. 
I have heard of numbers, of whose inno- 
cence the smallest doubt cannot be enter- 
tained, whose conduct merited reward in- 
stead of punishment ; yet they fell victims 
to the purest sentiments of philanthropy, 
which dictated their interference : these 
have been perverted by their enemies, who 
are also those of the human race, into 
crimes utterly unpardonable. Is this any 
thing less than arraigning benevolence and 
humanity, the most amiable qualities of the 
soul of man, as criminal and atrocious? 
But every man's breast, whatever be his 
principles, will tell him with irresistible 
force, that crime and atrocity lie at the 
other side. From personal knowledge of 
the circumstauces, I knew five or six who 
were innocent of the charges and of the 
deeds sworn against them, and who still 
were condemned and executed. In these 
turbid and distracted times, I have seen 
persons sunk so much below the level of 
human nature, that I do believe they were 



THE MEN OF ^98. 249 

not capable of judgment or recollection ; 
which accounts to me in some degree for 
the various assertions, even testimonies on 
trials, and affidavits made by different per- 
sons, who might as well relate their dreams 
for facts. The dreadful prejudice, hateful 
as uncharitable, entertained against Catho- 
lics, has also occasioned the death of many ; 
and the general excuse and impunity of 
Protestants, who joined in the insurrection, 
have induced many to avail themselves of 
this favorable circumstance to change with 
the times ; and to testify their loyalty, they 
accuse the very persons they themselves 
seduced to join the association of United 
Irishmen, and thus cut off all the existing 
proof of their own delinquency by a con- 
summation of villany." 

This year and the two succeeding were 
marked by scores of summary executions ; 
hundreds were doomed to servitude, to waste 
their lives in the company of felons far 
from the land they loved so well, while 
many, who were induced to enter the En- 
glish army to save their lives and liberty, 



250 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

fell on the sands of Egypt fighting under 
Abercrombie, in defence of that flag which 
had ever been to them the emblem of 
persecution and tyranny. 

' There is, however, a moral to be learned 
from every calamity, national as well as 
personal; and in this case it is, that even 
Irish bravery, undisciplined, unofficered, 
and devoid of the proper munitions of 
regular warfare, is no match for organized 
and abundantly supplied forces, such as 
England is always able to command. The 
people of Wexford, it is true, did wonders 
in a short time, and, had the whole of the 
country risen simultaneously in armed 
revolt, and exhibited equal daring and per- 
severance, the power of Great Britain would 
have been seriously jeopardized ; but, even 
then, it is very doubtful if a successful re- 
volution would have crowned their efforts. 
Warfare is a science not to be learned in a 
day or a week, and each successive war de- 
monstrates the fact that victory generally 
inclines, if not to the side of the '' heavy 
artillery," at least to that which has the 



THE MEN OF ^98. 251 

best commissariat, tlie truest guns, and the 
largest supply of arms of precision. Let 
those who talk so glibly of freeing Ireland 
by force remember this, and profit by the 
lesson it teaches before exposing their 
chivalrous country to the tender mercies of 
English law and EngUsh treachery. 



252 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



GENEEAL COUNT O^CONNELL. 

LAST DAYS OF THE IRISH BRIGADE IN FRANCE. 

In 1792, the survivors of the celebrated 
Irish Brigade, which had served for a full 
century in the armies of France with such 
renown and fidelity, quitted the soil of that 
country for ever. The occasion was one of 
deep melancholy and regret, both on the side 
of the veteran soldiers, and the royal family 
whose interests they were ever foremost in 
supporting. 

At the time this separation took place, the 
brigade, and we believe all the foreign 
troops in the French ser^dce, were under 
the command of General Count O'Connell, 
an uncle to the illustrious Irish Liberator. 
Thirty-three years previously, while yet 
very young. Count O'Connell entered 
the French service as sub-lieutenant in 



GENERAL COUNT O'CONNELL. 253 

Clare's regiment of dragoons, and by liis 
intelligence and bravery soon rose to the 
rank of major-general. At the siege of 
Gibraltar in 1782, when an unsuccessful 
attempt was made to prevent Lord Hood 
from relieving the English garrison, he served 
on board the admiral's ship, and in com- 
mand of the French marines performed many 
acts of daring and prowess, in the course of 
which he received no less than nine wounds. 
So marked, indeed, was his conduct during 
that disastrous engagement, that Louis 
XVI promoted him to the grade of colonel- 
commandant, and gave him the charge 
of the regiment Salm-Salm, a German con- 
tingent, full in numbers, but altogether defici- 
ent in experience and discipline. O'Connell 
however had an organizing mind as well as 
an intrepid spirit, and out of the raw material 
he was not long in forming one of the best 
drilled and most orderly regiments in the 
service. Six years later he was appointed 
one of tlie inspectors-general of infantry, and 
to him that branch of the service is indebted 
for its present system of organization, which 



254 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

has since been adopted by every country 
in Europe, and even forms the basis of our 
own Scott's and Hardee's Tactics. In allu- 
sion to Count O'Connell's services in his cap- 
acity of inspector, Sir Bernard Burke says : 
— ^'The French government resolved that 
the art of war should undergo revision, and a 
military board was formed for this purpose, 
comprising four general officers and one 
colonel. The colonel selected was O'Con- 
nell, who was esteemed one of the most 
scientific officers in the service. Without 
patronage or family he had risen to a colo- 
nelcy before he had attained his fortieth 
year. Only a few meetings of the board 
had taken place when the superior officers, 
struck with the depth and accuracy of in- 
formation, great military genius, and correct 
views, displayed by Colonel O'Connell, un- 
animously agreed to confide to him the 
revisal of the whole French military code ; 
and he executed the arduous duty so per- 
fectly, that his tactics were those followed 
in the early campaigns of revolutionized 
France, adhered to by Napoleon, and 



GENERAL COUNT O'CONNELL. 255 

adopted by Prussia, Austria, Russia, and 
England." 

Such was the man who, with his foreign 
legions then in the neighborhood of Paris, 
prepared to defend the king against the 
Paris mob, and who doubtless would have 
strangled the revolution in its cradle if he 
had been permitted to have done so by 
that well-meaning but vacillating monarch ; 
and such was the officer who was destined 
to lead in sorrow and bitterness the last 
survivors of the historical brigade from the 
scenes of their former glory. When about 
to take up their line of march, they halted 
for a few moments to pay their last respects 
to their ill-starred sovereign, who was rep- 
resented on the occasion by his brother. 
The prince advanced to the front of the 
brigade, the officers forming a semicircle 
around him, and spoke as follows: — "We 
acknowledge, gentlemen, the invaluable 
services which France, during the length- 
ened period of one hundred years, has 
received from the Irish Brigade, — services 
which we shall never forget, though totally 



256 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

unable to repay. Receive this standard" 
(it was embroidered with a shamrock and a 
fleur-de-lis) J ''a pledge of our remembrance, 
a token of om^ admiration and respect ; and 
this, generous Hibernians, shall be the motto 
on your spotless colors — ^ 1692-1792 : Sem- 
j^er ei ubique fidelis.^ " 

The principal cause of the departure of 
the brigade was the hostility daily evinced 
to foreign soldiers by the incipient 
revolutionists, and the king was weak 
enough to yield to their threats in the vain 
hope of conciliating them. In his imbecil- 
ity he did not see that the native soldiery 
had been tampered with, that the loyalty 
of his foreign levies could be impHcitly 
relied upon, and that, those men out of the 
way, he was at the mercy, or rather brutality, 
of the conspirators against his liberty and 
life. The subsequent career of the once 
famous brigade was as short it was tragical. 
Acting on inducements and promises, as 
specious as they were delusive, the brigade 
transferred its services to England, hoping, 
no doubt, to benefit by their presence and 



GENERAL COUNT O'CONNELL. 257 

conduct, their country and co-religionists 
at home, and were rewarded by being sent 
to some of the most pestiferous islands of the 
^Yest Indies, where the plague and the ma- 
laria utterly destroyed the organization in 
a very few years. Their flag, the last token 
of royal affection, was deposited in some 
humble church, we believe, in San Domin- 
go, where we are informed it remains to this 
day unnoticed and unknown. Count O'Con- 
nell, one of the few survivors, returned to 
Europe, and on the restoration of Louis 
XVIII, he regained possession of his estates 
in France, and was restored to his former 
rank in the army. He died in 1834 at the 
ripe age of ninety-one years, and with 
him may be said to have expired the last of 
the Irish Brigade in the service of France ; 
but so terrible was the dread of that gallant 
organization to England, that she procured 
the insertion of a clause in the Treaty of 
Vienna, in 1815, prohibiting France from 
ever admitting a brigade of Irislnnen in her 
army. 



17 



258 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



COUNT O'SHEA. 

SWEET REVENGE. 

Another of the survivors of the West 
India slaughter was O'Shea who had served 
with distinction in the brigade on the con- 
tinent previous to the French Eevolution. 
During the war in St. Domingo he was re- 
markable for his headlong bravery and in- 
vincible determination, but, what with the 
vicissitudes of battle, and the effects of a 
tropical climate, he saw his gallant regiment 
waste away till not a corporal's guard was 
left to command. He returned home, and 
applied for a commission in some other 
battalion, but he was refused even that of 
an ensign or second lieutenant. The penal 
laws of that day would not allow such a 
favor to a Catholic, no matter how great 
his services, or how matm^ed his experience. 

Five long years he spent in inactivity, 



COUNT O'SHEA. 259 

endeavoring to obtain a position in the 
British army, but without avail. At length, 
his patience becoming exhausted, he re- 
solved to go abroad. *^ My father," he 
said to a friend on the eve of his departm-e, 
^^had nothing to leave me but a sword. 
That sword I have tendered to the service 
of my country ; she has refused : I have no 
longer a country. I have offered it to 
England; I shall now offer it to France. 
The country that has refused me bread will 
give me a halter when they get me in their 
power. The chances of war may put me in 
theu' hands : there is my will ; do thou be 
my executor." 

The indig-nant and ill-treated soldier 
accordingly crossed to France, and was 
well received by the minister of war, 
General Clarke, a Franco-Irishman, and 
by Napoleon, to whom his merits were not" 
unknown, as he had heard of him from 
Rochambeau, against whom the major had 
fought in the West Indies. His appoint- 
ment was a matter of com'se, and his pro- 
motion, even for those stimng times, 



260 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

wonderfully rapid. In six months he had 
obtained a majority, and in another half- 
year he found himself in command of a 
regiment of hussars, having again been pro- 
moted on the field for gallant and meri- 
torious conduct. Soon after, he was made 
governor of Antwerp, where his skill, 
efficiency, and untiring energy were of 
infinite service to the country of his adop- 
tion. To his ability and exertions was 
mainly due the failure of what is known as 
the Walcheren Expedition, disastrous to the 
arms and prestige of England, as his subse- 
quent conduct, while in command of a corps 
at the siege of Burgos in Spain, defeated 
the attempts of the British to capture 
that city. It is pleasant to know that the 
halter, to which the English government 
would have treated him if once in their 
power, was never brought into requisition, 
for he was not the sort of person to be 
easily taken; and the count, for he was 
created a count of the empire for distin- 
guished services, Hved to enjoy a long and 
honorable old age. 



C ATTAIN o'rEILLY. 261 



CAPTAIN O'REILLY. 

A BRIGADE OFFICER OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 

The followinof amusinof' sketch of a retired 
officer of tlie old brigade, who had returned 
home to end his days among his friends and 
kinsfolk, is taken from the ^'Reminiscences 
of Michael Kelly." The mixture of many 
languages, not excepting even his native 
Gaelic, was by no means unnatural with 
one wlio had seen much service in many 
countiies, and who thereby acquired a 
proficiency in their respective vocabularies. 

"Walking on the Parade the second 
morning of my arrival in Cork," says Mr. 
Kelly, " Mr. Town send, of the Correspondent 
ncAvspaper, pointed out a very fine-looking, 
elderly gentleman standing at the club- 
house door, and told me that he was one of 
the most eccentric men in the world. His 



262 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

name was O'Reilly, and he had served many- 
years in the Irish Brigade in Germany and 
Prussia, where he had been distinguished 
as an excellent officer. Mr. Townsend 
added : ^ We reckon him here a great epi- 
cure, and he piques himself on being a great 
judge of the culinary art, as well as of wines. 
His good nature and pleasantry have intro- 
duced him to the best society, particularly 
among the Roman Catholics, where he is 
always a welcome guest. He speaks French, 
German, and Italian, and constantly, wliile 
speaking English with a determined Irish 
brogue, mixes all those languages in every 
sentence. It is immaterial to him whether 
the person he is talking to understands him 
or not — on he goes, stop him who can.' 

^* I was presented to him," continues Mr. 
Kelly, ^^ and no sooner had the noble cap- 
tain shaken me by the hand than he ex- 
claimed: 'Bonjour^moncherMick! Jesuis 
hien aise de vous voir^ as we say in France. 
An hJifhuil tu go maitJi. Tetois fache that I 
missed meeting you when I was last in 
Dublin; but I was obliged to go to the 



CAPTAIN o'reilly. 263 

county Galway to see a brother officer who 
formerly served with nie in Germany — as 
herlich ein kerlj as we say in Germany, as 
ever smelt gunpowder. Bair mo laimh — il 
est brave comme son epee, as fearless as his 
sword. Now tell me how go on your 
brother Joe and brother Mark ; yom- brother 
Pat, poor fellow, lost his life, I know, in 
the East Indies — but c'est la fortune de la 
guerre^ and he died avec Vlionneur. Your sis- 
ter Mary, too — how is she! Dair a mar- 
reamtj by my word she is as good a heart- 
ed, kind creature as ever lived ; but, entre 
nous J soit dit — she is rather plain, ma non e 
hella, quel ch^e hella, e hella quel clie piace, as 
we say in Italian.' 

"Now captain," said Mr. Kelly, "after the 
flattering encomiums you have bestowed on 
my sister's beauty, may I ask how you be- 
came so well acquainted with my family 
concerns?" 

" ^Parhleu! my dear Mick,' said the cap- 
tain, * well I may be, for sure your mother 
and my mother were sisters.' 

"On comparing notes," adds Kelly, "I 



264 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

found that such was the fact. When I was 
a boy, and before I left Dublin for Italy, I 
remember my mother often mentioning a 
nephew of hers of the name of O'Reilly, 
who had been sent to Germany when quite 
a lad — many years before — to a relative of 
his father who was in the Irish Brigade at 
Prague. Young O'Eeilly entered the regi- 
ment as a cadet, he afterwards went into 
the Prussian service ; but my mother heard 
no more of him. The captain told me, fur- 
thermore, that he had been cheated some 
years before out of a small property which 
his father left him in the county Meath, by 
a man whom he thought his best friend. 
^ However,' said the captain, ^ I had my 
satisfaction by calling him out and putting 
a bullet through his hat ; but, nevertheless, 
all the little property that was left me is 
gone. But, grace au del, I have never sul- 
lied my reputation nor injured mortal, and 
for that " the gods will take care of Cato." 
In all my misfortunes, cousin, I have never 
parted with the family sword, which was 
never drawn in a dirty cause ; and there it 



CAPTAIN o'reilly. 265 

hangs now in a little cabin which I have 
got in the county Meath. Should ever 
Freddy Jones discard me, I will end my 
days in risposo e ]_mce with the whole uni- 
versal world.' " 

The Frederick Jones mentioned by the 
captain was proprietor of Crow Street 
theatre. Jones took sucli a liking to him 
the first day he came to dine with him, that 
O'Reilly became his confidant and deputy- 
manager for life. 

One day, the caj^tain was in tlie streets 
of Clonmel when the Tipperary militia was 
marching out of town. The colonel's father 
had formerly been a miller and amassed a 
large fortune, which lie bequeathed to the 
colonel himself O'Reilly eyed the half- 
drilled militia and the swaggering but un- 
soldier-like colonel with the critical scrutiny 
of a veteran, and then exclaimed : '' By the 
god of war, here comes Marshal Sachs and 
the flour of Tipperary at his back ! " 



266 IRISH SOLDIERS. 



DANIEL O'CONNELL. 

HIS DUEL WITH d'eSTERRE. 

In 1814-15, the future Liberator was 
fast rising in popular favor, and from his 
boldness of speech, and legal acumen in 
evading the tricks and devices of the Cas- 
tle faction, was already looked upon as the 
leader of the people and the champion of 
Catholicity, then prostrated under the inflic- 
tion of the penal laws. As the tribune of the 
masses, he was almost as much disliked by 
the few " loyal," cowardly Catholic noble- 
men who were still allowed to exist in the 
country, as he was by the English officials 
and the Orangemen. Finding it impossible 
to silence him by persecutions, cajolery, or 
threats, the latter, twin haters of Ireland, re- 
solved to make away with him at all liaz- 
zards, and in a manner more worthy of the 



DANIEL O^CONNELL. 267 

dark ages of feudalism than of oui' supposed 
advanced century. At that tune the Dubhn 
corporation was Orange 'Ho the back bone," 
and one of its members was a certain J. N. 
D'Esterre, a man of desperate fortunes, and 
of great pecuniary embarrassments. He 
had formerly served as an officer of marines 
in the British navy, and was remarkable for 
his cool, reckless daring, and his skill in the 
use of firearms, particularly the pistol. 
This was the man therefore selected by the 
enemies of O'Connell as the instrument of 
then* vengeance, and inducements were 
held out to him that, if lie succeeded in kill- 
ing the popular leader, honors and emolu- 
ments were sure to follow. Goaded to des- 
peration by creditors, and lured by the 
hope of official distinction, which invariably 
awaited any attack on the Irish Catholics, 
individually or collectively, the unfortunate 
desperado prepared to force a quarrel on 
O'Connell, and even went so far as to arm 
himself witli a liorsewliip and' to parade 
the public streets witli tlie avowed intention 
of inflicting personal violence on him. 



268 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

We are not of those who defend the 
practice of duelling — fortunately, it is fast 
becoming a thing of the past in all well- 
ordered communities — ^but, if any thing 
could palliate or justify it, such justification 
can be found in the peculiar circumstances 
by which O'Connell was then surrounded. 
The aspmng leader of the most warlike and 
the bravest people in Europe, he was obliged 
to demonstrate his courage as well as to 
display his eloquence and legal lore. While 
attacked on every side by the mercenary 
scribes and spouters of the Castle, his refusal 
to accept a challenge, or his apology for 
words spoken upon mature deliberation, 
would have been the signal for falsehoods 
and slanders that might have cooled the 
affection and weakened the confidence of 
the people he was destined to lead out of 
worse than Egyptian bondage. 

As a great deal was said at the time, and 
probably will continue to be spoken and 
written about that duel as long as O'Connell's 
name and fame are discussed, we abridge 
from the Dublin Evening Post and other con- 



DANIEL O'CONNELL. 269 

temporary and impartial authorities, the 
particulars of the fatal rencontre, merely 
premising that in point of skill in the use of 
his weapon, and experience in such affairs, 
the Irish champion was far inferior to his 
antagonist. In point of size, D'Esten-e, 
who was of diminutive stature, had also 
a decided advantage, while O'Connell, as 
the event proved, far excelled his opponent 
in temper, coolness, and that sublime heroism 
which is only found in those who know 
they are defending a righteous cause. 
• On Thursday, the 26th of January, says 
the Post^ D'Esterre addressed a letter to 
O'Connell in the following words : — 

"11 Baclielor's Walk, 26tJi January, 1815. 

" Sir : Carriers paper of the 23d instant (in its 
report of the debates of a meeting of Catholic gentle- 
men, on the subject of a petition) states that you have 
applied the appellation of beggarly to the corporation of 
this city, calling it a beggarly corporation — and there- 
fore, as a member of that body, and feeling how pain- 
ful such is, I beg leave to inquire whether you really 
used or expressed yourself in any such language ? I 
feel the more justified in calling on you on this occasion, 
as such language was not warranted or provoked by 



270 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

any thing on the part of the corporation j neither was it 
consistent with the subject of your debate, or the de- 
portment of the other Catholic gentlemen who were 
present ; and though I view it as so inconsistent in every 
respect, I am in hopes the editor is under error, and not 
you. I have further to request your reply in the course 
of the evening, and remain, sir, your obedient servant, 

" J. N. D'ESTEERE. 

" To Counsellor (J Connelly Merrion Squared 

Mr. O'Connell's answer was as follows: — 

'^Merrion Square, January 27, 1815. 

" SiK : In reply to your letter of yesterday, and 
without either admitting or disclaiming the expression 
respecting the corporation of Dublin in the print to 
which you allude, I deem it right to infomi you that, 
from the calumnious manner in which the religion and 
character of the Catholics of Ireland are treated in that 
body, no terms attributed to me, however reproachful, 
can exceed the contemptuous feelings I entertain for 
that body in its corporate capacity j although doubtless 
it contains many valuable persons, whose conduct as 
individuals (I lament) must necessarily be confounded 
in the acts of a general body. I have only to add that 
this letter must close our correspondence on this subject. 

" I am, &c., &o., 

" Daniel O'Connell. 

"To J. N, IfEsterrCj Esq., 11 Bachelor's Walk:' 



DANIEL o'CONNELL. 271 

Mr. D'Esterre was advised to persist in 
the correspondence, and he addressed 
another letter (but directed in a different 
handwriting) to Mr. O'Connell. It was 
returned to him by Mr. James O'Connell, 
enclosed in a letter of the following 
tenor : — 

u ji^Qffion Square, Friday Evenhtg. 

" Sir : From tlie tenor of your letter of yesterday, 
my brother did not expect tliat your next communica- 
tion would have been made in writing. He directed 
me to open his letters in his absence. Your last letter, 
bearing a different address from the former one, was 
opened by me ', but upon perceiving the name subscribed, 
I have declined to read it, and by his directions I return 
it to you enclosed and unread. — I am, sir, your obedient 

servant, 

" James O'Connell. 

"To J. N. D'Esterre, Esq., 11 Bachelor's Walk:' 

The preceding letter was penned on 
Friday, and things remained in this condi- 
tion until Sunday. On that day Mr. James 
O'Connell received a note from Mr. D'Es- 
terre, containing disrespectful observations 
on himself and his brother. Immediately 



272 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

after the receipt of it, James sent his friend, 
Captain O'Mullane, to Mr. D'Esterre, to say- 
that, when the affair with Daniel was ad- 
justed, he would bring him to account for 
his conduct to himself peculiarly. Captain 
O'Mullane at the same time intimated that 
Counsellor O'Connell was astonished at his 
not hearing in what he conceived the proper 
way from Mr. D'Esterre. Nothing further 
happened on Sunday, and on Monday 
morning, Mr. Lidwill — who remained sever- 
al days, to be the friend of Mr. O'Connell — 
left town for home, despairing of any issue 
being put to the controversy ; besides 
which, some members of Mr. LidwilFs 
family were seriously indisposed. 

Monday passed, and on Tuesday con- 
siderable sensation was created by a rumor 
that Mr. D'Esterre was advised to go to the 
Four Courts to offer Mr. O'Connell person- 
al violence. Neither of the parties came in 
contact, but it seems that Mr. D'Esterre 
was met on one of the quays by Mr Eich- 
ard O'Grorman, who remonstrated with him 
to this effect: ^^ You conceive," said he, 



DANIEL O'CONNELL. 273 

"that you received an offence from Mr, 
O'Connell ; if so, your course is to demand 
satisfaction. This, I understand, you have 
not as yet done, but if you are now resolv- 
ed to do it, I undertake, on forfeiture of 
having a riddle made of my body, to have 
Mr. O'Connell on the ground in half an 
hour." This occurred about three o'clock, 
but no challenge followed. About four, it 
was understood that Mr. D'Esterre was on 
the streets, and Mr. O'Connell traversed the 
city with one or two friends, but did not 
come across his antagonist. A multitude 
soon collected about O'Connell, who used 
several expedients to avoid them. He went 
into Tuthill's in Dawson Street at one time, 
and came out through the stable-yard. Still, 
however, a crowd pressed on, among whom 
there could not be less than five hundred gen- 
tlemen, all of whom seemed carried away 
with a singular enthusiasm in favor of '^ the 
man of the people." Mr. O'Connell then 
had no other resource left but to take re- 
fuge in a house in Exchequer Street. In a 
short time, however, he was assailed by the 

18 



274 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

most formidable interruption lie had yet 
encountered. Judge Day entered in his 
magisterial capacity to put him under ar- 
rest. The Honorable Justice said he would 
be satisfied if he had the guarantee of Mr. 
O'Connell's honor that he would proceed no 
further in the business. ^' It is not my duty 
as a duellist," said O'Connell, "to be the 
aggressor; I therefore pledge my honor 
that I shall not be the aggressor — further, 
however, I must tell you, no human con- 
sideration will induce me to go." 

In the meantime, it was observed that 
Mr. D'Esterre was in a shop in Grafton 
Street, surrounded by a number of friends. 
We have heard that Mr. James O'Connell 
noticed on the countenance of one of them 
a leer, which provoked him to use an in- 
sulting expression. Nothing, however, in 
the way of a demand of explanation follow- 
ed. Tuesday then ended without a chal- 
lenge. Some of Mr. O'Connell's friends 
went to the play in the evening, and they 
brought many persons to account for ex- 
pressions unfavorable to .Mr. O'Connell, 



DANIEL O'CONNELL. 275 

which they conceived they overheard. 
There was a clergyman questioned, who 
defended himself by mentioning his pro- 
fession ; as to the others, they all, una voce, 
declared they meant nothing offensive to 
Mr. O'Connell. No challenge of any kind 
then grew out of Tuesday's proceedings. On 
Wednesday morning, however, it was at 
length intimated to Mr. O'Connell that Mr. 
D'Esterre intended to call upon him for a 
meeting. 

At nine o'clock on that day. Sir E. Stan- 
ley was knocking at O'Connell's door, and 
he was introduced to the lawyer in his study. 
Sir Edward opened his commission by say- 
ing that he wished to get an explanation 
from O'Connell relative to D'Esterre's affair. 
" Sir, I will hold no conversation with you 
on that subject," replied O'Connell; "my 
friend is Major MacNamara — here is his 
address " (giving it to Sir Edward). " You 
must apply to him for whatever information 
you desire." '^ Oh ! but, sir," said the civic 
knight, wlio was nervously anxious to glide 
out of the difficulty in which he found his 



276 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

faction involved, if he could do so without 
subversion of character, ^' I only wish to 
say a few words in explanation." O'Connell 
waved his hand and persisted in refusing to 
listen to the representations of Sir Edward, 
and the knight slowly took his departure 
with a rueful visage, apparently much 
dejected by the failure of his embassy. 
Twelve o'clock was fixed upon for the 
nomination of hour and place. There was 
some overture made to enlarge the time, 
but Mr. O'Connell's friend would not con- 
sent. We should mention tliat this friend 
was Major MacNamara of Doolen, in the 
county Clare, a Protestant gentleman at- 
tached to no party, and of the highest 
respectability. He is the descendant of 
some of the most distinguished of oui' Irish 
chieftains. Of the extent of his property 
we need not give a better description than 
that he is able to poll six hundred free- 
holders. The friend of Mr. D'Esterre was 
Sir Edward Stanley. 

At twelve o'clock on Wednesday, the 
day appointed. Sir Edward called on Major 



DANIEL OTONNELL. 277 

MacNamara at tlie lodgings of the latter, 
when the knight began by lamenting the 
necessity which forced him to make this 
application to Major MacNamara on behalf 
of his friend, D'Esterre, adding that he 
hoped the matter might yet be adjusted by 
an amicable explanation. ^'If you expect 
an apology or explanation from O'Connell, 
3^ou must be disappointed," said Major 
MacNamara. '' He has given no offence to 
D'Esterre, — he has done him no injury; 
therefore I must tell you it will be a waste 
of words and loss of time to speak further 
on a topic which has already, and for so 
long a time, engaged the public attention." 

'* Then, sir, it is my duty to deliver you 
a message from Mr. D'Esterre to Mr. 
O'Connell," said Sir Edward. 

^< Very well," rejoined Major Mac- 
Namara; ''it is my privilege to appoint a 
time and place, and I fix on this afternoon 
at three o'clock for the meeting, and Bishop's 
Court in the county Kildare as the place." 

The promptitude of this arrangement 
seemed to disconcert Sir Edward, whose 



278 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

visage became singularly discomposed. He 
faltered out a request to Major MacNamara 
to postpone it to two o'clock the following 
day, or until an early hour the succeeding 
morning, or even till half-past four that 
afternoon ; but MacNamara would on no 
account consent to postpone the meeting 
further than half-past three on the day on 
which they were speaking. These points 
being adjusted, Major MacNamara observed 
that, as the duellists had no personal quaiTel, 
nor any rancorous feeling of private ani- 
mosity, he supposed all parties would be 
satisfied when each gentleman discharged 
one pistol. The moderation of this sugges- 
tion stimulated Sir Edward to swagger a 
little. '^ No, sir," he replied in a hectoring 
tone, ^ that will not do ; if they fired five- 
and-twenty shots each, Mr. D'Esterre wdll 
never leave the ground until Mr. O'Connell 
makes an apology." 

^' Well, then, if blood be your object, 

blood you shall have, by G ! " replied 

Major MacNamara. 

A slight shower of snow was whitening 



DANIEL O'CONNELL. 279 

the ground as O'Connell and his friends 
rolled through James's Street on their way 
to Bishop's Court. This place is about 
twelve miles from the city, and constitutes 
a portion of Lord Ponsonby's demesne. 
The hour appointed was half-past tlu-ee 
o'clock. At three precisely — we can speak 
confidently, for we now speak from per- 
sonal knowledge — Mr. O'Connell, attend- 
ed by his second, and Surgeon Macklin, 
and a number of friends, was on the 
ground. About four, Mr. D'EsteiTe, at- 
tended only by Surgeon Peele, Sir 
Edward Stanley, his second, Mr. Piers, 
and a Mr. D'EsteiTe of Limerick, appeared. 
There was some conversation between the 
seconds as to position, mode of fire, &c., 
which, added to other sources of delay, 
occupied forty minutes. 

Meantime a considerable number of 
strangers came dropping in, one by one, 
to the scene of the altercation, and formed 
a large concourse of silent, watchful, and 
attentive spectators. Seeing this, Sir 
Edward, again addressing Major Mac- 



280 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Namara, expressed an apprehension (which 
he affected to entertain) as to the safety 
of himself and D'Esterre in case O'Connell 
should fall. He added, that it was his firm 
conviction, should his friend fight in that 
place on that day, the life of D'Esterre's 
friends must be jeopardized. 

" This affair has been long the subject 
of public conversation," answered Connell 
O'Connell, a relative of the Agitator, " and 
your friend has been the aggressor :' if 
you now quit the ground without fight- 
ing, I must consider you as cowards and 
ruffians ; and as to you, Su^ Edward, I 
shall call on you personally to make re- 
paration for an additional insult." 

On hearing this last remark, Sir Edward^s 
indecision vanished. He proceeded at once 
to prepare his pistols, and to place D'Esterre 
in the position and on the ground of a duel- 
list. Major MacNamara — in person one of 
the finest men in Europe — then advanced 
and said that the choice of the ground must 
be determined by an appeal to chance ; they 
should throw up a coin, and whoever guessed 



DANIEL O'CONNELL. 281 

while the money was in the air the side 
which should turn up, should enjoy the priv- 
ilege of choosing his ground. This arrange- 
ment was agreed to by Sir Edward. A 
piece of money went whirUng into the air, 
one party cried, and Major MacNamara 
proved the winner. During this interval, 
Mr. D'Esterre took occasion to say, that his 
quarrel with Mr. O'Connell was not of a 
religious nature ; he had no animosity what- 
soever to the Catholics or their leaders. 
At forty minutes past four o'clock the com- 
batants were on the ground. They both 
displayed the greatest coolness and courage. 
As to Mr. O'Connell, we never saw him in 
better spirits or more composed; indeed 
his cheerfulness was the astonishment of 
every spectator. 

It would be injustice to Mr. D'Esterre, 
whatever opinion we may have of the part 
he espoused, or rather the party who stimu- 
lated him to this act, to deny that he ap- 
peared perfectly self-possessed. We un- 
derstand, when it had been agreed by the 
seconds that the opponents were to take 



282 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

their ground with a case of pistols each, to 
use as they might think proper, Sir E. Stan- 
ley, Mr. D'Esterre's friend, addressed Major 
MacNamara, Mr. O'Connell's friend, as 
follows : 

"Well, sir, when each has discharged 
his case of pistols, I hope the affair will be 
considered as terminated, and that we 
leave the ground." 

Major MacNamara: — " Sir, you may, of 
course, take your friend from the ground 
when you please. You, sir, are the chal- 
lenger, and you may retire from the ground 
whenever you think proper; but I shall not 
enter into a.ny such condition as you pro- 
pose. However, it is probable that there 
may be no occasion to discharge the whole 
of a case of pistols." 

The friends of both parties retired, and 
the combatants, having a pistol in each hand, 
with directions to discharge them at their 
discretion, prepared to fire. They levelled, 
and before the lapse of a second both shots 
were heard. Mr. D'Esterre was first, and 
missed. His bullet struck the ground. 



DANIEL O'CONNELL. 283 

The moment D'Esterre discharged his 
pistol, he bent his right knee and wheeled 
away a little, as if he sought to avoid the 
sight of O'Connell, or wished to present his 
back to his antagonist ; but why he did so — 
whether from contempt, levity, or appre- 
hension — it is impossible to say. Mr. 
O'Connell's shot followed instantaneously, 
and took effect in the groin of his antago- 
nist, about an inch below the hip. Mr. 
D'Esterre of course fell, and both the sur- 
geons hastened to him. They found the 
ball had traversed the hip, passed through 
the bladder, and possibly touched the spine. 
It could not be found. There was an im- 
mense effusion of blood. All parties pre- 
pared to move towards home, and arrived 
in town before eight o'clock. We were 
extremely glad to perceive that Major Mac- 
Namara and many respectable gentlemen as- 
sisted in procuring the best accommodation 
for the wounded man. They sympathized 
in his sufferings, and expressed themselves 
to Sir Edward Stanley as extremely well 
pleased that a transaction, which they con- 



284 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

sidered most uncalled-for, had not termin- 
ated in the death of D'Esterre. We need 
not describe the emotions which burst forth 
along the road and through the town when 
it was ascertained that Mr. O'Connell was 
safe. 

Another authority says : " Nothing could 
be more correct or honorable than the con- 
duct of the parties upon the ground. Mr. 
O'Connell displayed all the gentleness of 
heart so peculiarly belonging to his char- 
acter, and his particular request to his med- 
ical friend, before taking his ground, was 
this : ^ Should any fatality happen to my 
opponent, I entreat you to consider him as 
your patient — treat him with all the care 
you would devote to me.' " 

Mr. Fagan says, in his account of the 
affair : — '^ It was reported in Dublin that Mr. 
O'Connell was shot ; and a party of dra- 
goons were despatched from Dublin for the 
protection of Mr. D'Esterre. On their way 
the officer by whom they were commanded 
met, on its return, the carriage containing 
Mr. O'Connell and his brother. The officer 



DA^^IEL O'CONNELL. 285 

called on the postilions to stop, whereupon 
Mr. James O'Connell pulled down the win- 
dow. The officer, addressing him, asked 
if they had been present at the duel, to 
which he replied in the affirmative. The 
officer then said, ' Is it true Mr. O'Connell 
has been shot 1 ' Mr. James O'Connell 
replied, ' No — the reverse is the fact ; Mr. 
D'Esterre has unfortunately fallen.^ The 
announcement had a visible effect upon the 
military; they were not prepared for the 
intelligence, and something like conster- 
nation was exhibited. The carriasfe was 
allowed to proceed — the military party 
being evidently not awai'e who were its 
occupants. 

"When D'Esterre fell, the spectators 
on the field could not refrain from giving 
expression to then* feehngs — they actually 
shouted ; and a young collegian who was 
present, and who is now an excellent exem- 
plary Protestant clergyman, was so carried 
away by the general feeling as to fling up 
his hat in the air, and shout, ^ Huzza for 
O'Connell ! ' Very different was tlie con- 



286 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

duct of tlie three occupants of O'Conneirs 
carriage. They displayed no exultation. 
The moment D'Esterre fell they went oif ; 
and though the place of meeting was near 
Naas, they were close to Dublin before a 
single word was exchanged between them. 
At last O'Connell broke the silence, saying : 
^ I fear he is dead, he fell so suddenly. 
Where do you think he was hit V ^ In the 
head, I think,' said his medical friend. ^ That 
cannot be — I aimed low; the ball must 
have entered near the thigh.' This will be 
considered a remarkable observation, when 
it is recollected where, as was subsequently 
found, the wound was inflicted. It shows 
the perfect coolness and humanity of 
O'Connell. Being one of the surest shots 
that ever fired a pistol, he could have hit 
his antagonist where he pleased. But his 
object was merely, in self-defence, to 
wound him in no mortal part; and he 
aimed low with that intention." 

" His contest with O'Connell," says the 
late Mark O'Callaghan, ^^has rescued 
D'Esterre's name from that miserable ob- 



DANIEL O'CONNELL. 287 

scurity wliicli is the general fate of most 
human bemgs. D'Esterre was a brave 
man gone astray. Were Ireland a nation, 
like those once despicable countries which 
raised themselves to that state, such as the 
United Pro^dnces of Holland, or the United 
States of America, — had Ireland a navy like 
them, had D'Esterre commanded a ship 
with a crew of Irish lads in that navy, we 
would place him alongside a ship of any 
other nation, far or near, and lay two to one 
he would soon make her strike her flag. 
But such was not his fate. He served with 
thousands of forgotten Irishmen as an 
officer in the English navy." 

O'Connell's victory — for the duel had 
become an event of national importance — 
created the greatest excitement in the 
capital and throughout the country, and 
was the occasion of general popular rejoic- 
ing by the nationalists, and corresponding 
chaofrin to the Oranor-emen and British foe- 
tions. From the archbishop of Dublin to 
the humblest peasant, tlie escape of the 
future Emancipator was a subject of con- 



288 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

gratulatlon, and bonfires blazed on a 
thousand hills, in the yet unregenerated 
land. 

D'Esterre's wound proved to be mortal, 
and he died two days after the fatal shot, 
regretted by none more sincerely than his 
antagonist and his friends. O'Connell's 
mimificent oifer to 'provide for his widow 
and her children was declined, but he after- 
wards had the satisfaction of assisting one of 
D'Esterre's daughters when in indigent cir- 
cumstances, and of settling upon her a hand- 
some annuity. There was no prosecution ; 
and so an event, which, if it had ended 
otherwise, might have been fatal to the hopes 
of the Irish Catholics, of tlia,t generation 
at least, passed into liistory. 



FLOOD AND FIELD. 289 



FLOOD AND FIELD. 

A SAILOR ON SHORE. 

There is not, perhaps, in the annals of 
shipwreck, a personal narrative more deeply 
distressing, or more painfully interesting, 
than that of Captain Riley. Were there 
not the most ample testimony to his excel- 
lent moral character and unimpeacliable 
veracity, we might be led to withhold our be- 
lief from some parts of his narrative, on the 
simple ground that human nature, on the 
one hand, was utterly incapable of inflict- 
ing, and, on the other, of enduring, sucli 
hardsliips and sufferings as this gentleman 
and his poor shipwrecked companions had 
to undergo, — sufferings which, as Captain 
Riley truly says, ^' liave been as great and as 
various as ever fell to the lot of humanitv/ 

The brig ^^ Commerce," commanded by 
Captain Riley, with a orew of ten persons, 

19 



290 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

was wrecked on the coast of Africa, on the 
28th of August, 1815. With some difficulty 
the crew, many of whom were Americans, 
reached the shore, and secured a small 
quantity of provisions, and tools to repair 
their boat, in which they hoped to reach 
the Cape de Verde Islands. All hopes of 
this were, however, soon rendered abortive 
by the appearance of a party of Arabs, who 
burnt their trunks and chests, carried off 
their provisions, and stove in the wine and 
water-casks. The crew escaped to their 
boat, but Mr. Riley was left behind. One 
of the Arabs seized hold of him by the 
throat, and with a scimitar at his breast, 
gave him to understand there was money 
on board, and it must instantly be brought 
ashore. 

When the ship was wrecked, Mr. Riley 
had divided the dollars among the crew. 
On being informed of the demands of the 
Arabs, he hailed the men, and told them 
what the savages required ; a bucket was 
accordingly sent on shore with about a 
thousand dollars. An old Arab instantly 



FLOOD AND FIELD. 291 

laid hold of it, and forcing Riley to accom- 
pany him, they all went behind the sand 
hills to divide the spoil. In this situation 
he felt himself very uneasy, and, in order to 
regain the beach, he made signs that there 
vras still more money remaining in the ship. 
The hint succeeded ; and under the idea of 
getting it, they allowed him again to hail 
his people, when, instead of money, he 
desired' them to send on shore Antonio 
Michael (an old man they had taken in at 
New Orleans), as the only possible means 
left for him of effecting his own escape. 
The Arabs finding, on his reaching the 
shore, that he had brought no money with 
him, struck him, pricked him with their 
sharp knives, and stripjoed him of all his 
clothes. Mr. Riley seized this opportunity 
of springing from his keepers, and plunged 
into the sea. On rising through tlie surf, 
he perceived the old Arab within ten feet 
of him, up to his chin in water, with his 
spear ready to strike him ; but another surf 
rolling at that instant over him, saved his 
life, and he reached the lee of the wreck in 



292 IRISH SOLDIERS. . 

safety. The remorseless brutes wreaked 
their vengeance on poor Antonio, by plung- 
ing a spear into his body, which laid him 
lifeless at their feet. 

The wreck was, by this time, going rap- 
idly to pieces : the long boat writhed like 
an old basket. The crew had neither pro- 
visions nor water ; neither oars nor a rudder 
to the boat ; neither compass nor quadrant 
to direct their course ; yet, hopeless tis their 
situation was, and expecting to be swal- 
lowed up by the first surf, they resolved to 
try their fate on the ocean, rather than to 
encounter death from the relentless savages 
on shore. By great exertion they suc- 
ceeded in finding a water-cask, out of which 
they filled four gallons into a keg. One of 
the seamen. Porter, stole on shore by the 
hawser, and brought on board two oars, 
with a small bag of money which they had 
buried, containing about four hundred dol- 
lars. They also contrived to get together 
a few pieces of salt pork, a live pig weigh- 
ing about twenty pounds, about four pounds 
of figs, a spar for the boat's mast, a jib, and 



FLOOD AND FIELD. 293 

a mainsail. Every thing" being ready, the 
crew said their prayers ; and the wind ceas- 
ing to blow, the boat was launched through 
the breakers. In this miserable boat they 
determined to stand out into the wide ocean. 
After being six days at sea, it was di'iven 
on the rocks, and completely stove, but the 
crew again reached the shore. 

On the next morning they set out from 
the place where they had been cast, which, 
as it afterwards appeared, Avas Cape Barbas, 
not far from Cape Blanco. They proceeded 
easterly close to the water's edge, for three 
days, when they encountered a large com- 
pany of Arabs who were watering their 
camels. The shipwrecked mariners bowed 
themselves to the ground with every mark 
of submission, and by signs implored their 
compassion, but in vain. The whole party 
were in an instant stripped naked to the 
skin, and the Arabs began to fight most 
furiously for the booty, and especially for 
getting possession of the pi-isoners. "Six 
or eight of them," says Captain Riley, whose 
nan-ative we now quote, '^ were about me, 



294 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

one hauling me one way, and one another. 
The one who stript ns, stuck to us as his 
lawful property, signifying, ^ You may have 
the others, these are mine.' 

" They cut at each other over my head, 
and on every side of me, with their bright 
weapons, which fairly whizzed through the 
air within an inch of my naked body and 
on every side of me, now hacking each 
other's arms apparently to the bone ; men 
laying their ribs bare with gashes, while 
their heads, hands, and thighs received a 
full share of cuts and wounds. The blood 
streaming from every gash, ran down their 
bodies, coloring and heightening the natural 
hideousness of their appearance. I had ex- 
pected to be cut to pieces in this dreadful 
affray, but was not injured. 

^^ The battle over, I saw my distressed 
companions divided among the Arabs, and 
all going towards the drove of camels, 
though they were at some distance from 
me. We too were delivered into the hands 
of two old women, who urged us on with 
sticks towards the camels. Naked and 



FLOOD AND FIELD. 295 

barefooted, we could not go very fast, and 
I showed the women my mouth, which Avas 
parched white as frost, and without a sign 
of moisture. When we got near the well, 
one of the women called for another, who 
came to us with a wooden bowl, that held, 
I should guess, about a gallon of water, 
and setting it on the ground, made myself 
and Dick kneel down and put our heads 
into it like camels. I drank, I suppose, 
half a gallon, though I had been very par- 
ticular in cautionino: the men ao^ainst di'ink- 
ing too much at a time, in case they ever 
came to water. I now experienced how 
much easier it was to preach, than to prac- 
tise aright. They then led us to the well, 
the water of which was nearly as black and 
disgusting as stale bilgewater. A large 
bowl was now filled with it, and a little 
sour cameFs-milk poured from a goatskin 
into it ; this tasted to me delicious, and we 
all drank of it till our stomachs were liter- 
ally filled. We now begged for something 
to eat, but these Arabs had nothing for 
themselves, and seemed very sorry it was 



296 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

not ill tlieir power to give us some food. 
There were at and about the well, I should 
think, about one hundred persons, men, 
women, and children, and from four to five 
hundred camels, large and small. The 
sun beat fiercely upon us, and our skins 
seemed actually to fry like meat before 
the fire. These people continued to di'aw 
water for then- camels, of which the 
animals drank enormous quantities." 

The party travelled southeast over a 
plain covered with small sharp stones, which 
lacerated their feet dreadfully. About mid- 
night they halted, and for the first time 
got about a pint of pure cameFs-milk each. 
The wind was chilling cold ; they lay on the 
sharp stones, perfectly naked ; their bodies 
blistered and mangled, and the stones 
piercing their naked flesh to the ribs. On 
the morning of the 11th (September), a 
pint of milk was divided among fom- of 
them, and they got nothing more until mid- 
night, when they were allowed a little milk 
and water. They continued travelling in 
the desert, enduring all the miseries of 



FLOOD AND FIELD. 297 

hunger, thirst, and fatigue, with every 
addition Arab cruelty could inflict, until 
they reached Wadnoon. Sidi Hamet, an 
African trader, who had purchased them 
of the old Arab, however, became the 
means of their deliverance. He told Mr. 
Riley, that he must write a letter to his 
friend at Suara, desiring him to pay the 
money for the ransom of himself and peo- 
ple, when they should be free. A scrap of 
paper, a reed, and some black liquor, were 
then brought to Mr. Riley, who briefly 
wrote the circumstances of the loss of the 
ship, his captivity, &c., adding: ^'Worn 
down to the bone by the most dreadful of 
all sufferings, naked, and a slave, I implore 
your pity, and trust that such distress will 
not be suffered to plead in vain." The 
letter was addressed, ^' To the English, 
French, Spanish, or American Consuls, or 
any Clnistian merchants in Mogadore." 
The anxiety of the captives may be well 
imagined. For seven days after Hamefs 
departure, they were shut up in a yard 
during the day, where cows, sheep, and 



298 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

asses rested ; and locked up all night in a 
dreary cellar. 

On the evening of the eighth day, a 
Moor came into the enclosure, and brought 
a letter from Mr. Wiltshire, the English 
consul, stating, that he had agreed to 
the demands of Sidi Hamet, whom he kept 
as a hostage for their safe appearance, 
and that the bearer would conduct them to 
Mogadore. He had also sent them clothes 
and provisions ; and thus accoutred and 
fortified, they set out under their new con- 
ductor, who brought them safe to Mogadore, 
where they were most kindly received by 
Mr. Wiltshire. 

We need only add that the brave Irish 
sailor, whose average weight was usually 
about two hundred pounds, was found upon 
being put into the scales to have lost over 
half that weight during his captivity. 



THE 88th rangers. 299 



THE 88th rangers. 

CONNAUGHT ROBBERS. 

The following anecdote is told of the 
conduct of two Irish regiments under Wel- 
lington at the battle of Fuentes d'Onoro, one 
of the most critical of that general's many- 
engagements on the Peninsula. The force 
of the sarcasm uttered by one of the 88th, 
lies in the fact, that General Picton was in 
the habit of using the term half in condem- 
nation and half in good humor. 

^'Fourteenth! Fourteenth!" cried a voice 
from behind, and at the same moment a 
staff officer, without his hat, and his horse 
bleeding from a recent sabre-cut, came up. 
*' You must move to the rear, Colonel Mer- 
ivale ; the French have gained the heights. 
Move round by the causeway — bring up 
your squadrons as quickly as you can, and 
support the infantry." 



800 lEISH SOLDIERS. 

In a moment we were in our saddles. But 
scarcely was the word to ^'fall in" given, 
when a loud cheer rent the very air ; the 
musketry seemed suddenly to cease, and 
the mass which seemed to struggle up the 
heights wavered, broke, and turned. 

''What can that be?" said Merivale. 
'' What can it mean ? " 

'' I can tell you, sir," said I, proudly, 
while I felt my heart as though it would 
bound from my bosom. 

" And what is it, boy 1 Speak ! " 

" There it goes again ! That was an Irish 
shout, — ^the 88th are at them ! " 

'' By Jove ! here the}^^ come," said Hamp- 
den : '' God help the Frenchmen now ! " 

The words were not well spoken, when 
the coats of our gallant fellows were seen 
dashing through the vineyard. 

''The steel, boys — nothing but the steel ! " 
shouted a loud voice from the crao^ above 
our heads. 

I looked up. It was the stern Picton 
himself who spoke. 

"The 8 8 til now led the pursuit, and 



THE 88th kangers. 301 

sprang from rock to rock in all tlie mad 
impetuosity of battle ; and like some mighty 
billow rolling before the gale, the French 
went down the heights. 

'' Gallant 88th ! Gloriously done ! " 
cried Picton as he waved his hat. 

*^ArVt we Connaught robbers, now!" 
shouted a rich brogue, as its owner, breath- 
less and bleeding, pressed forward in the 
charge. 

A hearty burst of laughter mingled with 
the din of the battle. 

^' Now for it, boys ! Now for our work," 
said Merivale, drawing his sabre as he 
spoke. ^' Forward and charge ! " 

We waited not a second bidding, but, 
bursting from our concealment, galloped 
down on the broken column. It was no 
regular charge, but an indiscriminate 
rush. Scarcely offering resistance, the 
enemy fell beneath our sabres, or the still 
more deadly ba3^onets of the infantry, who 
were inextricably mingled up in the con- 
flict. 

The chase was followed up for above 



302 IRISH SOLDIERS* 

half a milej when we fell back, fortunately, 
in good time ; for the French had opened a 
heavy fire from their artillery, and, regard- 
less of their own retreating column, poured 
a shower of grape among our squadrons. 
As we retired, the straggling files of the 
Rangers joined us, — their faces and accou- 
trements blackened and begrimed with pow- 
der ; many of them, themselves wounded, 
had captured prisoners : and one huge fel- 
low of the grenadier company was seen 
driving before him a no less powerful 
Frenchman, and to whom, as he turned 
from time to time reluctantly and scowled 
upon his jailor, the other vociferated some 
Irish imprecation, whose harsh intentions 
w^re made most palpably evident by a 
flourish of a drawn bayonet. 



GENERAL THOMAS SWEENY. 303 



GENERAL THOMAS W. SWEENY. 

BATTLES OF CERRO GORDO AND SHILOH. 

When the Mexican war witli this country 
broke out in 1846, it evoked a miHtary 
spirit in all classes of the community, which 
had slumbered for more than a quarter of 
a century. The farmer left his plow in the 
furrow, and the mechanic dropped the 
tools of his trade ; the lawyer threw aside 
his books, and the merchant abandoned his 
counting-house, all eager to take up arms 
and sustain the dignity of the American 
flag. Amongst the first and most eager to 
volunteer from this city was a young printer, 
then in the first flush of manhood, named 
Thomas W. Sweeny, who, abandoning home 
and friends, entered hopefully on the perilous 
path which leads to military fame, but more 
often to the grave. 



304 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

As a member of the Tompkins Blues, an 
independent militia company, lie had al- 
ready enjoyed the semblance of military 
life; but he was now desirous to witness 
its stern realities. When the captain and 
some members of that company volunteered 
for the war as part of the 1st New York 
Volunteers, he went with it as second lieu- 
tenant; and, on his arrival in Mexico, had 
the double pleasure of being elected first 
lieutenant, and of having his regiment as- 
signed to the brigade of his countryman, 
General James Shields, then forming part 
of Scotf s command. 

Up to and including the battle of Cerro 
Gordo, Lieutenant Sweeny was ever at his 
post, and when any fighting was to be done, 
he was always to be found prepared to take 
his share of it. 

We next find him at Cherubusco, with 
his right arm badly wounded, cheering on 
his men, where, notwithstanding the pain 
of his shattered limb, he continued in action 
till victory crowned the American arms. 
This persistence in remaining on the field 



GENERAL THOMAS SWEENY. 305 

SO long nearly cost liim his life, on account 
of the intense heat of the weather, and the 
difficulty afterwards of obtaining medical 
assistance ; as it was, he lost his right arm, 
which suffered amputation, and was thus 
prevented taking any further part in the war 
dui'ing the continuation of hostilities. 

On the restoration of peace. Lieutenant 
Sweeny returned to New York, where he 
was the recipient of very flattering atten- 
tions from the citizens of all classes, as well 
as those of Brooklyn, and particularly from 
his fellow-craftsmen, w^ho felt proud that 
one of their number should have so distin- 
guished himself The Government of the 
United States, also, in appreciation of his 
gallant services, commissioned him as second 
lieutenant in the 2d U. S. Infantry — a com- 
pliment more rare and valuable at that 
tune than it has since become — and sent him 
to the Pacific coast, near the scene of his 
former dangers and triumphs. It was while 
in the far West that he was assigned to the 
charge of Fort Yuma, a stockaded log- 
house, which, wdth only ten men, he held 

20 



306 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

for as many months, surrounded by hostile 
Indians bent on its capture, and entirely 
cut off from succor or communication with 
the white settlements. 

In 1851, he was promoted to be first 
lieutenant; in January 1861, a captain; and, 
in October, 1863, he rose to the rank of 
major in the regular service. In 1854 he 
returned to New York, and was ordered on 
regimental recruiting service; and in the 
spring of the following year was ordered 
to Nebraska, where he served with his 
regiment during the Sioux war. 

Meanwhile the Civil War broke out, and 
Captain Sweeny was assigned to the com- 
mand of the arsenal at St. Louis, a post 
of great importance at that time, as a heavy 
force of the rebels had assembled in the 
neighborhood under General Frost, with 
the design of capturing the large stores of 
guns and ammunition contained in the ar- 
senal, seizing St. Louis, and drawing the 
State out of the Union. On the surrender 
of those malcontents at Camp Jackson, 
Sweeny, who was second in command of 



GENERAL THOMAS SWEENY. 307 

the Union troops, conducted the negotia- 
tions which led to their discomfiture and 
surrender. 

He was appointed brigadier-general in 
the three months^ service, and served with 
General Lyon in the Missouri campaign, 
which terminated with the battle of Wilson's 
Creek, where Lyon was killed ; but, though 
the victory was decidedly in favor of the 
Union troops, the officer who next took 
command ordered a retreat. This General 
Sweeny strenuously opposed, urging that 
that was the time to show firmness and strike 
a decisive blow, and ofiering to lead his 
brigade alone against the discomfited and 
disheartened enemy ; but his remonstrance 
was unheeded, and a retreat was commenced 
which proved more disastrous to our troops 
than the loss of a battle, while the effect it 
had on the spirit of the nation, at that stage 
of the war, was most lamentable and 
depressing. On this battle-field he got a 
wound in the leg. 

In October, of the same year, he accom- 
panied General Fremont's army into South- 



308 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Western Missouri as adjutant-general of 
the 5tli Division, commanded by General 
McKinstry. 

In January, 1862, lie was appointed 
colonel of the 52d Illinois Volunteers, and 
ordered to report to General Grant, who 
was then besieging Fort Donelson. At the 
battle of Shiloh he commanded a brigade 
of six regiments, and received no less than 
three wounds, one of which came near 
depriving him of his left arm, and had two 
horses killed under him. He was wounded 
again at the battle of Corinth (3d and 4th 
October, 1862), where he had another horse 
killed under him. 

In November, 1862, he was appointed 
brigadier-general of volunteers, and was 
ordered to North Alabama to attack General 
Roddy, who was greatly annoying the 
Federals, and succeeded in driving him out 
of Tuscumbia. In February, 1863, he com- 
manded the right wing of the cokimn sent 
into Northern Alabama to cover Colonel 
Streighf s movement on Rome, but, from 
some unaccountable delay on the part of 



GENERAL THOMAS SWEENY. 309 

the latter, Forrest prevented him from 
accomplishing the object of the expedition. 

Yet, notwithstanding his maimed condi- 
tion and his numerous wounds, General 
Sweeny was able to take an active part in 
the war till its final close. He commanded 
a division under Lieutenant- General Sher- 
man in his celebrated march to the sea, 
and, we have reason to believe, enjoyed the 
esteem and confidence of that distinguished 
soldier in a veiy high degree. The general 
is now in his fifty-first year (having been 
born in Cork in 1822), forty-one of which 
have been spent in this countr}^, and, though 
many times wounded, seems as eager for 
a fio^ht as when he first embarked on a 
career in which he has earned so much 
honorable distinction. 

He is now on the Retired List of the 
army. The following is the order under 
which he was retired : — 

*' Head-Quartees of the United States, 
" Adjutant-General^s Office, 

"Washington, Muy 11, 1870. 
" 1. A Board of Examination having found Major 



310 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Thomas W. Sweeny, U. S. ArmV; unassigned, inca- 
pacitated for active service, and tliat said incapacity is 
due primarily to a wound received in the battle of 
Ohurubusco, Mexico, while a second lieutenant of the 
Fhst New York Volunteer Infantry, on the 20th of 
August, 1847, which occasioned the amputation of his 
right arm at the middle third; and, secondly, to a 
gunshot wound received in the right leg at the battle 
of Wilson Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861, while 
acting as Inspector-Greneral to Brigadier General Lyon, 
and at which time he, Major Sweeny, was a Brigadier- 
General of the three months' volunteers, under an election 
of the officers approved by Brigadier-Goneral Lyon; and, 
thirdly, by a gunshot wound in the flesh of the left arm 
above the elbow, received at the battle of Shiloh, 
Tennessee, while commanding a brigade ; these several 
wounds being aggravated by long and faithful service 
and exposure in the line of duty,^ the President directs 
that his name be placed upon the list of retired officers 
of that class in which the disability results from long 
and faithful service, or from wounds or injmy in the 
line of duty. In accordance with section 32 of the act 
approved July 28, 1866, Major Sweeny is, by direc- 
tion of the President, retired with the full rank of 
Brigadier-General. 

" By command of General Sherman". 

" E. D. TowNSEND, Adjutant-General. 

" J. R. Martin, Assistant Adjutant-General " 



GENEEAL MICHAEL CORCORAN. 311 



GENERAL MICHAEL CORCORAN. 

THE 69th at bull run. 

Michael Corcoran had arrived at man- 
hood before he left his native country to 
seek a home in America, and, selecting New 
York as his future residence, early set about 
identifying himself with the interests of its 
citizens, and preparing to qualify himself for 
the performance of the duties imposed upon 
him by virtue of his naturalization. As 
soon as it was possible, he joined the 69th 
militia as a line officer, and was successively 
promoted to major, lieutenant-colonel, and 
colonel. 

He was acting in this latter capacity 
when the Prince of Wales visited this coun- 
try in 1860, and upon his regiment being 
ordered out by the major-general command- 
ing the division, he refused to obey ; and. 



312 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

taking upon himself tlie sole responsibility, 
prohibited the promulgation of the order 
by his subordinate officers. Naturally, he 
did not feel inclined to see an Irish- Ameri- 
can organization used to swell an ovation 
offered to the eldest son of Queen Victoria 
and the future king of England, who appear- 
ed among us as the representative of a power 
which has always endeavored to crush 
liberty and independence in the land of his 
birth, and to drive millions of his country- 
men into poverty and exile. Technically, we 
think, he was also right, for we doubt very 
much if the officers commanding divisions 
or brigades in our State militia have any 
authority to call upon their commands, per- 
emptorily, for any such purpose as a civic 
pageant. However, for this supposed 
breach of military discipline, he was put 
under the form of arrest, a court-martial 
was appointed to try him, and had actually 
commenced its sessions when the civil war 
broke out and Fort Sumter was bombarded 
and taken. 

Then the militia of this and the other 



GENERAL MICHAEL CORCORAN. 313 

States were called into service, and the 69tli, 
being one of the first to volunteer, through 
its lieutenant-colonel, Robert Nugent, the 
court-martial was dissolved, the charges 
dropped, and the colonel, amid the warm 
congratulations of his friends, again assum- 
ed command. 

On the 23d of April, the 69th left New 
York for the defence of the national capital. 
It was composed of nearly every officer of 
tlie organization and about two hundred 
reofular members : the shortness of the time 
allowed, and the peculiar circumstances of 
many of the rank and file, precluded the 
possibility of their accompanying their com- 
rades at that time. This deficiency, how- 
ever, was more than amply supplied by tlie 
numbers of recruits who offered themselves 
during the two previous days and up to the 
very moment the regiment took up its line 
of march. It is no exaggeration to say 
that, during the interval between the 
receipt of the President's requisition and 
the departure of the 69tli, at least three 
thousand stalwart Irish adopted citizens 



314 IRISH SOLDIRES. 

presented themselves for enrolment ; but, as 
only a limited niimber could be accepted, 
the majority were obliged to go away dis- 
appointed, to find an outlet for their patri- 
otic zeal in some other regiment. We 
have ourselves seen, on the 23d of April, in 
Prince Street, where the headquarters were, 
and in Bond Street, where the line was form- 
ed, hundreds of fine-looking men, actually 
praying with tears in their eyes to be 
allowed to join the ranks. As it was, the 
majority of those accepted could only be 
furnished with arms and blankets, and in 
this condition, the latter rolled up and slung 
scarf- wise, they left New York, as pugna- 
cious and enthusiastic a body of men as 
were ever hurled against an enemy. 

A short stay on the Annapolis and 
Washington Railroad and a brief sojourn at 
Georgetown preceded their entry into Vir- 
ginia, where for a couple of months they 
were engaged in building Fort Corcoran, on 
the south side of the Potomac, commanding 
the approach to the capital via tlie Aqueduct 
Bridge, and in drilhng and practising the 



GENERAL MICHAEL CORCORAN. 315 

simple manoeuvres most likely to be 
brought into requisition in case of actual . 
conflict. Colonel Corcoran on tliis occasion 
paid the strictest attention to his men, not 
only in teaching them the rudiments of 
tactics and the manual of arms, but in see- 
ing them supplied with proper uniforms, 
muskets, equipments, and ammunition. He 
was well versed in the theory of his new 
calling, and was an unbending disciplinarian; 
but withal, a kind and ever-indulgent com- 
mandant. In the latter part of May he 
was joined by Captain Thomas Meagher, 
with a company of zouaves, all picked men, 
young, intelligent, and eager for battle ; and 
this, constituting the tenth company of the 
regiment, raised its strength to nearly 
thii-teen hundred effectives. 

At length the desired order for a general 
advance w^as issued. Patterson, it was ex- 
l^ected, would be able to hold Johnson and 
his rebels in the Shenandoah Valley, while 
McDowell and his troops were to attack 
Beauregard and his force, then in position 
at Manassas. The 69th, forming a portion 



316 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

of Sherman's brigade and Tyler's division, 
left their quarters on the 16th of July, and 
advanced, with the other portions of the- 
Union army, by easy marches to Centre ville. 
Here a halt took place for a couple of days, 
and, a council of war being held, it was 
resolved to attack the enemy in three 
columns, — one at Blackburn's Ford on the 
left, one at the Stone Bridge in the centre, 
and the other some distance up Bull Run 
on the extreme right. The 69 th formed 
part of this latter column. 

The 23d of July was selected for the 
engagement, and early on the morning of 
that day McDowell's army was in motion ; 
but, though the plans were well conceived, 
their defective execution was apparent from 
the very first movement, and ended in utter 
defeat. In fact, on both sides, a succession 
of the greatest blunders was observable, 
which can only be attributed to the ineffic- 
iency and want of experience of the general 
officers. It is now well known, from the 
reports published by the generals on eitlier 
side, that both armies were running away 



GENERAL MICHAEL CORCORAN. 317 

at the same time, and that it was only the 
fortuitous arrival of the rebel General John- 
son on the field that saved Beauregard's 
troops from being comj^letely routed. On 
our side, the column that had the shortest 
distance to go was moved first, and, getting 
prematurely into action, found the others 
out of supporting distance. Thus Bull Run 
battle may be said to have been fought 
piecemeal, and to have been lost in detail. 
When the 69th crossed, late in the morn- 
ing, they formed a long and splendid line, 
and advanced quickly and in good order 
on the enemy's left. As soon as they came 
within range they were saluted with a 
heavy artillery fire and a discharge of 
musketry, which brought down several of 
their men, killing the major, the heroic 
Haggerty, and dismounting Capt. Meaglier 
by disabling his horse. One wild cheer 
that rang over the plain of Manassas, and 
a steady fire of musketry, answered this 
challenge, and many a man went down, 
and stout hearts quailed, before that gallant 
front. ^^ Still on they marched and fii'ed.'^ 



318 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

Twice did tlie enemy essay to stop their 
progress, and were as often repulsed: in 
vain did tliey ply their grape, spherical-case, 
and shrapnel: the irrepressible Irishmen 
would not be stayed. Their orders were 
to beat the enemy, and they were resolved 
to do it; and had some other regiments 
evinced the like determination on that day, 
the contest would soon have been ended and 
the rebellion probably crushed in the bud. 
It has been asserted that the men of the 
69th fought naked from the waist upward, 
but this is a pure invention. The day was 
exceedingly sultry, and many divested them- 
selves of their knapsacks, haversacks, and 
superfluous clothing, so that they could go 
into the fight untrammelled — for Irishmen, 
when they go into action, like to be un- 
encumbered — and this circumstance, we 
presume, gave rise to the story of their 
nudity. The fabrication, it may be re- 
marked, also obtained additional currency 
from those who wished to attach an odor 
of savageness to their bravery, though it is 
well known to all who have any knowledge 



GENERAL MICHAEL CORCORAN. 319 

of our late civil war, that a more considerate, 
humane, and even chivalrous spirit could not 
have been exhibited by the troops of any 
nation towards their opponents, than that 
which peculiarly distinguished the Irish in 
the United States' service. 

In the impetuous and irresistible attack 
on the enemy's position. Colonel Corcoran 
was ever in advance of his men, cheering 
them by his words and animating them by 
his example ; and it was only when the rout 
became general, and his line was without 
support, that, with a heavy heart, he gave 
the order to retreat. This was done in 
tolerably good order; the Run was recrossed, 
and as the rebels pressed close upon them, 
they formed a square to resist their attack 
and cover the retreat. It was, however, use- 
less. In the confusion that ensued, the mass 
of fugitives, two-thirds of the entire army, 
surrounded and swept away the 69tli, which 
became so inextricably mixed up with them 
that the colonel was separated from his 
command, and found himself with but two 
officers and h handfid of men. While in 



320 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

this situation, endeavoring to extricate his 
men from the hosts that pressed them on- 
ward, he, scorning to fly, was taken prisoner 
with his small force of one captain, a lieu- 
tenant, and thirty-seven men. The loss of 
the 69th at Bull Eun, in killed, wounded, 
and prisoners, has been reported at about 
two hundred. 

Corcoran was conveyed to the Libby 
Prison at Richmond, where for nearly a year 
he suffered all the indignities and hardships 
to which Union prisoners were subjected 
during the war, and for several months 
was confined with anothey officer in a 
damp cellar of the building, having been 
selected for execution in reprisal for the 
anticipated punishment of some pirates 
captured by our seamen. His conduct 
throughout this trying period was exceed- 
ingly manly and dignified; and we have it 
from an individual, then high in the confi- 
dence of the so-called Confederate authori- 
ties, that, upon being offered certain privi- 
leges, and, in his peculiar position, luxuries, 
he replied : ^' I would not take a cup of cold 



GENERAL MICHAEL COECORAN. 321 

water as a favor from an enemy of the 
American Union." 

In the summer of 1862 he was exchanged, 
and, coming to New York, was the recipient 
of many pubhc and private marks of appre- 
ciation and esteem. The government com- 
missioned him brigadier-general, and in 
a short time he raised a brigade of his 
countrymen, known as the " Corcoran 
Legion," with which he proceeded to Nor- 
folk, in Virginia. With this body he took 
part in all General Peck's operations, par- 
ticularly in the engagement on the river 
Trent, and the following year was ordered 
to the Army of the Potomac, with his head- 
quarters at Fairfax Court-House. Some 
montlis after, while riding with his staff from 
Fairfax Station to the Court-House, he was 
thrown from his horse, and expired four 
hours afterwards. 

His sudden death caused great regret not 
only to his own friends and countr3-men, 
but among all classes of citizens; for it was 
felt that the career of a young and promising 
officer had been too soon brought to a close, 

21 



322 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

and that the country had been deprived 
of a brave and efficient defender. The loss, 
indeed, was a national one, for he was an 
earnest advocate of free government, and 
an intrepid defender of the -American flag. 

His Legion survived him, and remained a 
distinct organization till the close of the 
war, taking an active and honorable part 
in the campaigns of 1864-5. Its losses 
were, of course, very heavy both in men 
and officers; and among the latter may be 
mentioned Colonel James McMahon, who 
fell leading on his men at the battle of 
Gaines's Mills, Ya., June 3d, pierced by 
fourteen rifle-balls ; and General Matthew 
Murphy, Corcoran's successor, who was mor- 
tally wounded in the following campaign. 
Their blood and that of many another gal- 
lant Irishman has moistened and fertilized 
the sacred soil of Virginia. Let us hope that 
their noble examples may be as fruitful of 
high-toned and patriotic actions in those 
who survive them. There is no class of our 
people more interested in the stability of 
this republic, and in the preservation and 



GENERAL MICHAEL CORCORAN. 323 

perpetuation of its fair name and fame, than 
the adopted citizens of Irish birth ; for it has 
not only been to them a home and a shield 
of protection against the persecutions of 
England and the cold scorn of tlie world, 
but its influence for good on the destinies 
of their native country is likely to wax and 
become* more potent as its own strength 
increases, and its principles of freedom and 
equality gain acceptance among the nations 
of Europe. So far we have done well, as 
have our fathers before us ; and it is to be 
hoped that in the future we will neither 
throw away the benefits derived from their 
conduct, nor fail to imitate it should an 
opportunity present itself. 



It would have been a pleasing task for 
us to have recorded in this volume the 
names and some of the more prominent 
achievements of many distinguished Irish 
officers who shed honor on the country of 
their birth during the late war for the 



324 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

preservation of the American Union; but 
their careers are so well known, and their 
lieroism so familiar to us all, that it is un- 
necessary to allude to them here. 

Few citizens, indeed, whether native or 
foreign, who have not heard of the gallantry 
of such men as General James Shields of 
Tyrone, the successful opponent of Stone- 
wall Jackson ; Thomas Francis Meagher of 
Waterford, the principal organizer, and for a 
long time commander, of the Irish Brigade ; 
Colonels Robert Nugent of Down, and 
Patrick Kelly of Gal way, his successors; 
General Thomas Smith of Delaware, a 
native of Cork ; Guiney of the 9th Massa- 
chusetts Volunteers ; Byrne of the 28th 
Massachusetts Volunteers ; St. Clair Mul- 
holland, from the glens of Antrim, of the 
116th Pennsylvania Volunteers; O'Kane of 
the 69th Pennsylvania A^olunteers; the 
f devoted Major Joe O'Neill of the 63d, 
\ Colonel James Kelly of the 69th New York 
Volunteers, born in the county of Mon- 
aghan ; and a host of others of lesser rank, 
but equally remarkable for devotion to 



IRISH SOLDIERS. 325 

their adopted country, and for unswerving 
fidelity and undaunted bravery in the 
darkest hour of our country^s tribulations. 

Some fell on the field ; others have died 
subsequent to the termination of the war, 
from the result of physical injuries or 
over-taxed brain incurred during that dire 
struggle ; and a few yet survive, with un- 
diminished ardor, and with all the unquench- 
able fire of Irish patriotism burning in their 
hearts. Future historians and biographers, 
it is to be hoped, will measure out to them 
their due meed of justice, which we consider 
would be unfitting in us to bestow, as well 
as premature at the present time. 



326 lEISH SOLDIERS. 



WHO WON THE "BEITISH" 
VICTORIES I 

BATTLES BY LAND AND SEA. 

It is humiliating to acknowledge, but it 
is nevertheless true, that the vast majority 
of the soldiers and sailors in the English 
service for several generations past have 
been natives of Ireland ; and it is to them 
that that country owes the victories, such as 
those of Nelson and Wellington, Ross, 
Gough, and Napier, which for the past three- 
quarters of a century have favored her arms 
on land and water. During the Peninsular 
War, two-thirds of the army, according to 
Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton, were Irish, and 
in 1810 Sir John Cox Hippesley asserted 
in his place in Parliament that, among two 
thousand soldiers, within his own knowledge 
only one hundred and sixty were Protest- 



THE '' BRITISH" VICTORIES. 327 

ants ; and in a regiment, tlien stationed in 
tlie south of England, the numbers were 
even more remarkable, for out of nine hun- 
dred men, eight lunidred and sixty were 
Catholics ; while the 87th foot, the heroes of 
Monte Video, were, to a man, of the same 
faith. In this connection the word '^ Cath- 
olic'' is to be taken as synonymous with 
** Irish," as at that time there were no Eng- 
lish and very few Scotch Catholics from 
whom to recruit. 

The same proportion will be found to 
have existed m the much-lauded British 
navy. According to Henry Grattan : "In 
the last war (1775-1782), of eighty thousand 
seamen, fifty thousand w^ere Irish names ; 
in Chelsea, nearly one-third of the pension- 
ers were Irish names ; in some of tlie men- 
of-war, nearly the whole complement were 
Irisli." Hippesley on the occasion referred 
to — and he seems to have given much at- 
tention to the matter — affirmed that '^ when 
fewer Catholics entered the service than at 
present, the crew of the Thunderer^ 74 
guns, was composed of two-thirds Catholics." 



328 IRISH SOLDIERS. 

The same gentleman, himself an orthodox 
and consistent Protestant, further states that, 
out of fifty-six ships of the line, which at 
two different periods belonged to Plymouth 
division, the Catholics greatly exceeded the 
Protestants in the maioritv of the vessels. 
In some of the first and second rates they 
formed nearly the whole ; and in the Naval 
Hospital, about four years before, out of 
four hundred and seventy-six sailors no less 
than three hundred and sixty-three were 
Catholics. Alluding to the composition of the 
British navy in 1782, Sir Jonah Barrington 
with much justice remarked : *' It was then 
manned by what were generally denomi- 
nated British tars, but a large proportion 
of whom were in fact sailors of Irish birth 
and Irish feelings, — ready to shed their 
blood in the service of Great Britain whilst 
she remained the friend of Ireland, but as 
ready to seize and steer the British navy 
into Irish ports should she declare against 
their country. The ^ Mutiny of the ' Nore ' 
confirms these observations. Had the 
mutineers at that time chosen to carry the 



THE "bkitish" victories. 329 

Britisli ships into an Irish port, no power 
could have prevented them ; and had there 
been a strong insurrection in Ireland, it is 
more than probable that they would have 
delivered more than one-half of the English 
fleet into the hands of then' countrymen." 
What could and would have been done 
then, according to Banington, can be done 
at any time in the future ; and we trust 
that the day is not far distant when the 
hardy fellows who have earned so much 
renown under the enemy's flag, will have 
one of their own to fight under. 

*' Hurrah! hurrah! it can't be far when, from the Scinde 
to Shannon, 
Shall gleam a line of freemen's flags, begirt by freemen's 

cannon, — 
The coming day of freedom — the flashing flags of 
freedom ! 

The victor glaive, 
The mottoes wave — 
May we be there to read them! — 
That glorious noon, 
God send it soon! 
Hurrah for human Freedom 1 " * 



* Davis. 



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